When We Stand Together
by Challenger2011
Summary: Aly Rose lived a normal life until she was saved by Bumblebee. Now friends with the Autobots, she must keep their existance a secret. Unfortunately a government group is making that a bit tricky and to make matters worse a Decepticon is stirring up trouble for everyone.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my new, and hopefully improved, version of Transformers: Alliance. While I enjoyed writing Alliance, it was my first attempt at writing Transformers fanfiction and I found some errors in it. So I have taken Transformers: Alliance down and rewrote it into this. A Fateful First Encounter is still the prequel. The title is inspired by When We Stand Together by Nickleback, I think that's a good song for my Alliance universe. I hope you all enjoy this and please feel free to tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. I do own my OCs Aly Rose and Zoe Smith. **

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><p><em>Tick, tock. Tick, tock. <em>The rhythmic ticking of the clock, the humid air, and her teacher's droning voice were slowly lulling Aly Rose to sleep. Quickly she pinched her arm to try to wake herself up. Aly let out a small sigh, why did time have to be against her on a Friday? Her freedom was only mere moments away, but it felt like time was stopping. She took a quick glance out the classroom window to see if a yellow and black Camaro was still parked outside. When she saw that it was still in fact parked there, she turned her attention back to her teacher's lecture. Aly kept imagining that one day her Camaro was just going to disappear and she would discover that the past four weeks had just been a dream. That she hadn't really almost been killed by a giant alien robot and had been rescued by another. That the robot that had rescued her was called Bumblebee and he could transform into a Camaro. That Bumblebee hadn't taken her to meet the other Autobots on Earth, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, and Ironhide. It was too unbelievable to actually be true. But it was, and that fact never ceased to amaze her. Of course, she was the only human that was actually aware of that. Her parents and friends at school were clueless to the fact that aliens even existed, and they never would believe that she was friends with some and that her car was one. Bumblebee wasn't just her car though; he was also her friend and guardian. The Autobot leader Optimus Prime had assigned him that role after she had met the Autobots.

"Mademoiselle Rose now is not the time to be off in La-La Land."

"Désolé Monsieur Burke," Aly replied in French, her face turning red from embarrassment.

Aly let her blue eyes look back up at the clock before focusing back on her teacher. Only three minutes left of class and then she could leave. Another weekend of hanging out with the Autobots was sure to be fun. Well at least for the most part. Aly was having a hard time getting along with the Autobot's weapons specialist Ironhide. He didn't like the fact that a human was hanging around the Autobot base, and he made no attempts at hiding that fact when Aly was around. It probably didn't help that she would get snippy with him whenever he started to be rude. If there was one thing Aly could not stand, it was rudeness.

_I should just bring Sherlock with me this weekend. I'm sure Ironhide would just love that, _she thought to herself.

Her parents had given her a small grey and white kitten a few days before she had met Bumblebee and she had named him Sherlock after Sherlock Holmes. She had brought him over to the Autobot base once and he had tried to climb on Ironhide the entire time. It had annoyed Ironhide to no end and Aly had had a hard time trying not to laugh at the scene. She hadn't been the only one though judging by the look that had been on Bumblebee's face.

The sound of the bell ringing brought Aly out of her thoughts. She quickly grabbed her stuff and rushed out the door. After a quick stop at her locker she was outside heading towards the parking lot where Bumblebee was at.

"Hey 'Bee," she greeted right after she had climbed inside and closed the door.

"Hey Aly, how was school?"

"Same as always, which means it was extremely boring."

"Really? I think school sounds interesting."

"You wouldn't think that if you went to it. Wait, did you guys not have school back on Cybertron?" Aly asked.

"I don't know if there were any or not. I came online after the war had already started and there weren't any schools then. Maybe there were some before the war started; you would have to ask Optimus, Ratchet, or Ironhide about it."

"I might ask them sometime. So what's on the agenda for this weekend?"

"I don't know yet. Do you have any martial arts stuff this weekend?"

Aly smiled. She had been taking martial arts lessons ever since she was six after her mother had heard that martial arts could help kids with ADHD focus better. Lessons were usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but occasionally she would go to the gym and practice some on the weekends.

"No, I'm taking a break this weekend. So any Decepticon attacks lately?" Aly asked brushing a strand of her red hair out of her eyes before looking out the window to see if she saw her friend Zoe coming yet.

"So far there hasn't been any sign of them at all."

"I suppose it's too much to hope that they've decided to just up and leave Earth?" Aly sighed.

"Probably," Bumblebee replied. "But in a way it's a good thing that they haven't left. If the 'Cons leave, we'll probably have to leave too."

"That would suck. I don't want you guys to leave."

"Really, not even Ironhide?"

"Well now that you mention him… nah I guess not, though there are times I do wish he wasn't here."

"Ironhide will lighten up eventually Aly. Just give it time. Besides the two of you have stuff in common already."

"What?"

"Well you both can't stand each other and you both can have bad tempers," Bumblebee teased.

"Gee that makes me feel so much closer to him," Aly rolled her eyes. She took another look out the window and saw Zoe heading towards them. "Here comes Zoe, we better stop talking now."

A few seconds later Zoe opened up the passenger door and climbed inside.

"Hey Alley Cat, not good to be talking to yourself in public. I'm your friend and I love you, so I'll overlook it, but you know how other people can be."

"Well you know I had to answer the voices running through my head. Wait. Alley Cat?" Aly questioned.

"That's my new nickname for you. Your name is Aly and you have a cat, so Alley Cat," Zoe explained.

"Technically Aly is my nickname since my full name is Alyson."

"Yeah but your parents and some of the teachers at school are the only ones who call you that, so Aly is really more your name than Alyson," Zoe pointed out.

"Whatever you say Zoe," Aly sighed in defeat. "What took you so long to get out here?"

"Ugh your French teacher, that's what. He caught me somewhat running in the hallway, so I had to hear him say, 'Miss Smith, the hallways are not for running. Walk in them like you are supposed to.'. Hello, it is Friday afternoon and I do have a life."

What sounded like a small chuckle drew Zoe's eyes to the Camaro's radio. Zoe Smith had always been told that she had good instincts. Her dad liked to joke with her that no one would ever be able to trick her because she would be able to tell if there was something she wasn't being told. Zoe normally would agree with her dad, but lately she wasn't so sure about that. Zoe had been close friends with Aly since she was three and Aly was two. They told each other everything and didn't keep secrets from each other… or at least that's what Zoe thought. Lately she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something that her friend wasn't telling her and she felt like it had something to do with Aly's Camaro. It was silly, but she really thought that there was something weird about it. There would be times that she or Aly would say something and then suddenly the radio would cut off. Aly would always shrug it off and say that the car had radio problems, but Zoe wasn't so sure. It had always struck her odd that Aly had been able to afford a brand new Camaro with the price range her dad have given her. It wasn't that Aly's family couldn't afford a new Camaro, Zoe was sure that Thomas and Elizabeth Rose made enough money for one, they just didn't like to show it off. Aly's story had always seemed farfetched to Zoe as well. Some guy just randomly happened to be selling a brand new Camaro and dropped the price so a sixteen year old girl could buy it? That was something that didn't happen every day. But Zoe decided to ignore it and trust Aly. She knew her friend enough to know she wouldn't do something stupid like steal a car – she had to have bought it somehow. But every time Aly gave Zoe a ride home, she would get this weird feeling that there was something about it that she wasn't being told.

"I swear at times I feel like this car is haunted or something," Zoe muttered.

"Don't be ridiculous Zoe. There are no such things as ghosts and even if there were, this car is pretty new and I'm pretty sure no one has died in it," Aly replied, giving a small glare to the steering wheel.

"Whatever, but maybe that explains why that guy let you have it so cheap. You might want to think about that when your car is randomly switching radio stations. So what are you going to do this weekend?" Zoe asked while she pulled her blonde hair back into a ponytail.

"Umm I'll probably just hang around here," Aly said. "What about you?"

"My mom is taking me and Abby to the beach tomorrow. She says it'll be good for the two of us to get some Vitamin D. You should come with us Aly. Nothing interesting ever happens here, you'll die of boredom. Plus you're paler than me, you need some sun."

"I can't get a tan without getting a ton of freckles, you know that. Besides I'm sure I'll find something interesting to do here," Aly smiled.

The smile on her friend's face made Zoe feel like there was some joke she was missing. After that the two girls remained in an uncomfortable silence for the rest of the way to Zoe's house. When they arrived, Zoe quickly hoped out and told Aly that she would talk to her later and if she changed her mind about the beach to give her a call. As soon as Aly drove away Zoe walked up to the door of her house. When she discovered that the door was unlocked, she realized that something was not right. Her mom wasn't home from work yet and Abby was still at daycare, there was no reason for the door to be unlocked. What if someone had broken into her house and there was a chance that they were still there. Maybe she was being too paranoid, she did watch quite a few crime shows. It could just be her Aunt Maggie coming over to visit. Yeah, that was probably what it was.

Hesitantly she opened up the door and stepped inside. Next to the door there was an umbrella that her mom kept in case it was raining. Zoe picked it up and held on to it tightly as she started through the house. It wasn't much of a weapon, but she needed something to defend herself with if she was attacked. When she entered the living room, she found her intruder. Sitting in one of the chairs was a man that she had never seen before in her life.

"W-who are you?" Zoe demanded fighting, and failing, to keep her voice steady.

"Miss Smith," the man said standing up. "I'm from a government group called Sector Seven. I need to ask you a few questions."

"You didn't answer my question," Zoe said taking a few steps back.

"You don't ask the questions Miss Smith. I ask the questions. And you will answer the questions I ask. But if it makes you feel better, I'm Agent Simmons. Now my next question may seem a little strange, but have you recently noticed any strange activities?"

"Strange? Are you serious? This is like the most boring place on Earth. Nothing strange ever happens here," she scoffed. "Where's my mom? I shouldn't be answering any questions without her here, so stay back." Zoe popped up the umbrella and pointed it at Simmons.

"It's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors. As for your mother being here, there shouldn't be a problem as long as you're not trying to cover up something. That would be a mistake to cover up anything. Do you want to go to college Miss Smith? Get out of this little place and go somewhere exciting? Because if you lie to me or cover up any vital information I need, I'll make sure there's not a college in the world that will accept you. Not even clown college. Now I'm going to ask you again Miss Smith. Are you sure you can't think of anything odd that's happened?"

"The strangest thing that has happened here is that my best friend was able to buy a brand new Camaro from some guy who practically just gave it to her and I think the car could possibly be possessed. Nothing I'm sure you are interested in. Actually scratch that, the strangest thing is having some random guy break into my house, claim that he's from the government and start asking me questions and threatening me. I make good grades and I am a good student. You can't keep me out of college! My parents have been planning on me going to college since before I was born!"

"This Camaro, could you describe it?" Simmons asked, ignoring the last part of what Zoe had said.

"It's a new model I think. It's yellow with black stripes and has a few little decals – I think that's what they're called – on the sides that look like some sort of face. It has radio problems apparently because it will occasionally turn off by itself. I don't know much about cars so that's all I can tell you. "

"Interesting. Do you have any pictures of this vehicle?"

"No."

"I see. Do you think that this car could possibly be a NBE?"

"A what?" Zoe questioned. "I told you it's a Camaro."

"A Non-Biological Extraterrestrial," Simmons sighed. _Uneducated kids, they really needed to be teaching these sorts of things in the curriculum these days._

"Like ET? Something like that?" Zoe asked. "Are you on something? Aliens do not exist and Aly's car is not one. I don't know what you want, please leave."

"You're wrong about the aliens Miss Smith. Here's my card, call me if you find something suspicious. Your information could be valuable. Princeton, Harvard, Yale. I can make it happen for you. Think about it. Think about it really hard."

Zoe stepped back clutching her umbrella and pointing it at Simmons as he walked out of the house. She waited until he was out of sight before looking down at the card in her hand. She started to crumple it up before she stopped herself. She didn't believe in aliens and had no plans on ever calling this Agent Simmons dude, but she wanted to have proof whenever she told Aly about this. Zoe imagined that her friend was going to get a kick out of some dude thinking that her car was actually somehow an alien.

"Sector Seven," Zoe said to herself. "Never heard of it. Time to Google."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. My OC Moonraider belongs to me.**

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><p>Starscream hated monitor duty. As Air Commander and Second-in-Command of the Decepticon army, there were plenty of duties he should have, but monitor duty should not be one of them. He was part of Megatron's elite and one day, once the Decepticon leader's spark had finally been extinguished, he would be leader of the Decepticons. He should not be degraded to a task such as monitor duty! There were plenty of other lower ranking Decepticons that would be better suited to the job, but no Megatron was forcing him to do it instead. Of course being on monitor duty wasn't the worst thing at the moment.<p>

"Monitor duty is so dull," another voice sighed.

No, being stuck on monitor duty with Moonraider was _much_ worse than monitor duty itself. The purple and blue femme was the Decepticon's newest arrival on the forsaken planet they were currently stuck on. Moonraider was an espionage agent and, in Starscream's opinion, a very poor one at that. Every single mission of hers had been a failure and yet somehow she was still online. If he had had that many failures Megatron would have deactivated him by now. But then again, Moonraider had never been on Megatron's personal team before. Things would be changing for her now.

"Isn't there anyone else who could do this?" Moonraider asked. "I have better things to do."

"And I don't? If anyone should be complaining about being on monitor duty, it should be me. This is a perfect task for you though Moonraider. After all how could you possibly mess this up?"

Moonraider's violet optics narrowed at the Seeker's comment. Oh how she loathed him. It wasn't like she was the only one who had failed a few missions in the past. She knew that Starscream had his own fair share of failures as well. The only difference is that Starscream could fail and still have a high rank. But Moonraider on the other hand, was just tossed aside and seen as worthless whenever she failed. It wasn't fair! Of course the word fair really didn't matter in the Decepticon army. It was survival of the fittest for them. And the fact that she was still alive was proof that Moonraider was no fool. The others were the ones who were fools and soon it would be proved to them.

"At least all of my failures haven't been on our leader's life Starscream," Moonraider smirked. "I'm amazed that Megatron still lets you live after all the times you have tried to kill him. It's no wonder your brothers haven't arrived here yet. They probably don't want to get caught up in your schemes and are just avoiding having to be around you. Can't say that I blame them."

"Silence femme! Thundercracker and Skywarp are not avoiding coming here and your company is no pleasure either," Starscream said standing up and walking over to her.

_Ooh he's mad now. This should be fun_, Moonraider thought to herself.

"At least I haven't been beat by a youngling," she chuckled. "From what I hear you couldn't kill a human because the Autobot's scout stopped you. How embarrassing for the Decepticon SIC. I only wish I could have been there to see it myself."

Before Moonraider could do anything else, Starscream had grabbed her by the neck – threatening to crush it at any moment.

"S-struck a nerve have I?" she asked, struggling to speak. "I-I didn't take you to be the type to copy Megatron."

Starscream tightened his grip for a moment before letting her go.

"Of course I really shouldn't be too surprised. As the humans say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Moonraider said.

Before Starscream could react she rushed out of the room. She was smart enough to know not to stick around after insulting Starscream. While most Decepticons she had been around most of the time would not take being compared to the Decepticon leader as much as an insult, it was no secret that Starscream hated it. The Seeker viewed himself as superior to Megatron, though none of the Decepticons viewed him that way. There was a time when Moonraider had wondered what had caused Starscream to start thinking that way, but it no longer mattered. If everything went according to plan, the Decepticons would not matter at all.

Moonraider quickly entered her quarters and made sure that there were no cameras hidden within the room. While she had not been onboard the _Nemesis _very long, she did know that Soundwave was the eyes and ears of the Decepticons and nothing happened onboard the ship without him knowing about it. How he was able to do it, Moonraider had no idea. But she was assuming that there was a chance that cameras were involved, so she took extra care to make sure there weren't any in her own room. She didn't have the luxury of being able to do that anywhere else on the ship, especially when she was in the same room as Starscream.

Once she was satisfied that she wasn't being watched, Moonraider walked over to a small console that was in her room. The console was hidden slightly to keep suspicions should some unwelcome visitor come inside. Located on it was a data-stream of information from one of the humans' government groups. While she wasn't really all that interested in the humans' government, she found this group rather intriguing. They apparently specialized in aliens, and according to the information she had found about them, they currently had two in their custody. From the sounds of things, it appeared that they were possibly Cybertronians. Moonraider knew that eventually she was going to have to pay these humans a visit, but that could wait for a while longer. She had discovered the human group shortly after she arrived on Earth – before she had met up with the other Decepticons. It was then that she begun to form her plan.

She would pass along bits and pieces of information to Sector Seven anonymously to get them on the right track. In exchange whenever she decided to go visit them, she would make a deal with them to help her get rid of a few troublesome 'Bots and 'Cons. She would let the humans do whatever they wanted to do with them as long as they left her alone. And then when the humans grew out of their usefulness to her, she would simply dispose of them. Of course should something happen that her plan not work out for her, she could use the information that she had found to try to gain Megatron's favor. After all the two captured Cybertronians could be useful soldiers to the Decepticon cause. Either way, as far as Moonraider could tell, this was going to be a win-win situation for her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and any other OCs in this story belong to me,**

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><p>Saturday mornings were a time to sleep in late. Or at least that's what Aly had thought before she met the Autobots. As it turned out, a day on Cybertron was longer than that of one on Earth. Add to the fact that Cybertronians didn't sleep, or recharge as Ratchet called it, as long as a human did, Aly's weekend sleeping time was greatly reduced. Of course Bumblebee did try his best to make sure that she did get to sleep a little later than she usually got to during the week, but even then it was still earlier than what Aly was used to. And this Saturday was proving to be no exception. The sounds of tapping coming from the window and Sherlock meowing woke her up at seven o'clock in the morning. Aly groaned and pulled her pillow over her head, trying to drown out the noise. Unfortunately it was a futile attempt and she soon found herself sitting up and glaring over at the window. She waited a few minutes before she actually got out of bed and walked over to open the window.<p>

"I was kind of hoping to sleep later than this 'Bee."

"Sorry Aly," Bumblebee said sheepishly. "I just wanted to tell you that I think that you should go to the beach with Zoe today."

"Why?"

"I was just reading something on the internet about how people shouldn't ditch their friends for new ones. You said that you and Zoe have been friends for a long time right? Well I don't want to come between the two of you."

"You're not going to come between us Bumblebee. Wait… why were you looking that up?" Aly questioned, racking her brain of any times that she had ditched Zoe. Besides the beach none came to mind.

"I was bored and I knew you wouldn't be up for another few hours," Bumblebee replied.

"You guys need to figure out how to sleep longer."

"That's not really possible Aly. Besides, I _do _recharge longer than Optimus and the others. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm still a youngling."

"Youngling?" she asked.

There were quite a few things that Aly didn't quite understand about the Cybertronians, mostly because she didn't ask. The answers to the few things she had asked had went over her head, and she decided that she wasn't going to ask anything unless she felt like it was important for her to know.

"A youngling is an adolescent on Cybertron."

"So you're still a kid then?"

"Pretty much. If I was a human I would probably be around your age if not a little younger."

"Really? You don't really act like it."

"I had to grow up fast," Bumblebee shrugged. "Now about you going to the beach…"

"Do you want to go to the beach 'Bee? You really want me to go."

"I would like to go, but I can't. I have training with Ironhide and I thought that you might would rather spend time with Zoe than with Ironhide."

"Good point. I think I'll give Zoe a call," Aly said picking up the phone. A quick look at the clock made her put it back down. "I should probably wait another hour before I call her. I don't think she'll be up yet."

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><p>"No human today?" Ironhide asked when he saw Bumblebee enter the base alone.<p>

"No, Aly is going to the beach with one of her friends today," Bumblebee replied as he transformed. "She might want to come over later though."

"How exactly are you supposed to be guarding her if you're not with her Bumblebee?" Ratchet questioned.

"The Decepticons haven't gone after her once since she met us and the beach is a very public place. They've been keeping a low profile like just like we are, so I think she'll be fine there. And I told her to call if something happened," Bumblebee explained to the medic. "Where's Optimus?"

"Out on patrol."

Bumblebee watched as Ratchet resumed his focus on something he had been working on when Bumblebee had first come in. The scout was curious about what it was, but decided to ask about it later. He still had training with Ironhide, and Bumblebee knew from past experiences that it was better to get straight to it instead of putting it off until later.

"So what are we doing today 'Hide?" Bumblebee asked turning to face the weapons specialist.

"Weapons training, you need to work on your aim," he gruffly replied.

Bumblebee had to suppress a sigh of relief. While training with Ironhide was never a fun thing to do, weapons training was the only one where you were guaranteed not to end up getting the slag beat out of you. Well unless you had a melee weapon that is – which Bumblebee currently did not have. Plus Ironhide did have a point on him needing to work on his aim. With Bumblebee's only weapons being firearms, he needed to make sure that he could actually hit his target unless he wanted to go into hand-to-hand combat, something that wasn't smart for him to do unless his opponent was someone closer to his size.

"Okay let's go."

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><p>The bright sun glistened off of the ocean like diamonds, forcing Aly to have to lower her sunglasses to cover her eyes. She tried to remember when the last time she had been to the beach was. It had actually been a while because of how busy her dad was. She had taken going to the beach for granted but realized now how much she missed it. Of course going to the beach with Zoe's family was a lot different than going with her own. How Zoe was able to stand listening to Abby's favorite music for an entire hour was beyond her.<p>

"Let's play princess!" Abby happily exclaimed. "Zoe's Cinderella, Aly's Ariel, and I'm Rapunzel!"

"Why do I have to be Ariel?" Aly asked.

"Cause you have red hair silly," Abby giggled.

"Abby why don't you help me build a sandcastle and let Zoe and Aly go off and do something else for a little while," Mrs. Smith suggested.

"Thanks mom," Zoe said before grabbing Aly's arm and dragging her off far enough away from prying eyes and ears.

Aly frowned at her friend's actions. Zoe had been pretty quiet during the drive to the beach and Aly had been friends with her long enough to know when she was frustrated. The only thing was that as far as Aly could tell, there was no reason for Zoe to even be frustrated. She had seemed fine yesterday, so what was with the sudden attitude change?

"What's up Zoe?"

"You tell me Aly."

"What are you talking about?"

"Yesterday there was some dude in my house saying that he was with the government and to get straight to the point, he thinks your car is an alien."

"What?" Aly's blue eyes widened. This could not be happening. The government couldn't possibly know about Bumblebee and the other Autobots. Could they?

"I didn't believe him at first," Zoe continued. "After all, your car being an alien is even crazier than my theory about it being possessed. But then I thought about it some more. There has always been something strange about that car and ever since you got it you've been acting weird…"

"Zoe you don't honestly believe that my car is an alien do you?" Aly interrupted fighting to mask the panic in her voice. "I mean that's crazy."

"I don't know if it's an alien or what it is, but something is not right with it. I think you need to give it back to the guy you bought it from Aly. It's gotten you mixed up in something bad and if the government is after it, well things cannot possibly end well."

"I'm not involved in anything bad."

Okay that was a little bit of a lie. Aly was technically involved in an alien war now and that really wasn't a good thing, though it wasn't Bumblebee's fault that she was involved. It was Starscream's fault for trying to kill her, which caused Bumble to rescue her. But she couldn't exactly tell that to Zoe, no matter how much she wanted to. It wasn't her secret to tell and she couldn't tell her unless the Autobots wanted her to know. Something that Aly was doubtful would happen for a while – especially if Zoe had been questioned about their existence by the government.

"Yeah right," Zoe rolled her eyes. "You're hiding something, I can tell."

"No I'm not, "Aly lied. Oh she really hated having to lie.

"Yes you are! If you weren't you would just get rid of that stupid car!"

"H-it's not stupid!" Aly snapped back.

"Yeah well maybe I should just call Simmons and have him check out your car himself!"

Aly felt her heart skip a beat at Zoe's words. She wouldn't really call Simmons, whom Aly was assuming was the man who had been in Zoe's house, would she?

"You can't call him Zoe. What if he was just some crazy guy who forgot to take his medicine? He might think that anything is an alien and do something insane," Aly said. Zoe remained silent. "At least think about it before you do it. It's a bad idea and you know it."

"Whatever," Zoe replied walking towards the ocean.

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><p>The second Aly got back to her driveway she opened up the door to Bumblebee's waiting alt-mode and climbed inside. She had to tell all of the Autobots about what Zoe had said. If the government was trying to track them down, they had a right to know.<p>

"We need to go to the base 'Bee. I have something I have to tell all of you," Aly said.

"What?"

"Some guy from the government talked to Zoe."

"About what?"

"Take a guess."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. I do own the OCs that appear in this story however.**

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><p>If Ironhide wasn't a giant alien robot made of metal, Aly would have punched him right then and there. As it was Ironhide <em>was <em>an alien robot made of metal and hitting him would only result in her hurting herself. But that didn't stop her from clenching her hands into fists and holding them by her side. She had known that out of all of the Autobots, Ironhide would be the one that would react to the Zoe/Government situation the worst, but she had not expected him to actually out right insult one of her best friends to her face. It wasn't Zoe's fault that the government had approached her! But no, Ironhide was clearly pissed and was going on about how Zoe was going to cause too many problems for them now. Aly glanced over at the other Autobots to see what their reactions were. Ratchet looked annoyed, Bumblebee looked worried (though whether it was towards the government problem or the inevitable confrontation between her and Ironhide, Aly wasn't sure), and Optimus looked as stoic as always.

"Zoe probably won't even call him!" she finally snapped. "She was just frustrated when she said that."

"She was mad at you? Well that settles it then-"

"Excuse me but do you know her Ironhide? Hmm, what's that? Yeah I didn't think so! I've been friends with Zoe since I was three, I know that when she's frustrated she'll get mad and say things she doesn't really mean. You guys don't know her at all! So don't go around assuming what she's going to do!"

For a moment Aly thought she saw a brief flash of sympathy on Optimus' face, but she didn't bother to dwell on it. Right now the room in the Autobots' base felt too small and she wanted nothing more than to get out of there at that very moment. She was mad and upset and tears were threatening to start pouring out of her eyes at any second. The last thing she wanted was for the Autobots to see her crying, so she did the first thing that popped into her mind. She ran out of the room.

"Aly!" Bumblebee called after her and was about to follow her himself when Optimus placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let her go Bumblebee. She needs time to calm down," the Autobot leader explained.

"Why'd you have to upset her 'Hide?" Bumblebee asked. "She didn't know that the government was going to try to find out that we're here and she can't help that they talked to Zoe. Besides Aly's right, we don't really know Zoe."

"While that is a good point Bumblebee, we must also be vigilant. If the human government is trying to discover us we will have to be extra careful to ensure we do not raise any suspicions. That especially goes for you Bumblebee. You are around the humans more than the rest of us," Optimus stated. He turned his gaze to Ironhide. "And if we are discovered, we _will _require Alyson's assistance in dealing with the government. She is our only human ally and her help could be of great value. Upsetting her is not the right solution."

Bumblebee nodded his head before heading outside to find Aly. He figured a few minutes was enough time to leave her alone. And he knew her better than the others and knew that while having time alone was good, she also would want to vent.

He found her sitting in a tree a few feet away from the base. Aly had her head buried in her knees with her arms wrapped around them. As he got closer to her he noticed that her eyes were slightly red from where she had been crying.

"Aly?" Bumblebee bent down so he would be as close to eye level as possible with her.

"Do you think Zoe's going to call Simmons too?" she asked lifting her eyes up to meet Bumblebee's optics.

"Do you?"

"I honestly want to say no, but I'm scared that Ironhide's going to be right. Zoe and I rarely fight or argue. I mean she gets frustrated with other people more than she does with me. I don't know what she's going to do now. I've been best friends with her since I was three."

"Do you think hanging out with us will ruin your friendship with her?" Bumblebee quietly asked. He hoped that she would say no. While he didn't want Aly's friendship with Zoe to go south, he also didn't want to lose her. She was his best friend too.

"No! Well I mean there's probably going to be issues between us here and there as long as she's in the dark, but we'll find a way to work it out. It's just going to have to be something I add on to my list. Work things out with Zoe and deal with Ironhide being a jerk."

"Don't let 'Hide get you down. You just have to work to earn his respect."

"Great, that should be easy," Aly sarcastically muttered.

"You'll figure something out. After all you got me to like you," he teased.

"By freaking out because I was about to be killed by Starscream and then because a talking car was in front of my house? Somehow I don't think that's going to work with Ironhide."

"Actually I liked you because you were funny, but like I said, you'll figure something out. Oh I almost forgot, more Autobots are coming to Earth!"

"Really?" Aly perked up in interest, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"Yeah they should be here in a day or two."

"Who's coming?"

"We don't know yet. Ratchet just picked up their signal earlier."

"Cool!" Aly grinned. More Autobots around would be fun, well unless they were all like Ironhide, but what were the chances of that happening? "You know maybe I should call Zoe and try to patch things up just to make sure that she won't call that Simmons guy. With more of you coming, it would probably be a good thing to make sure that she won't do something like that."

"That sounds like a good idea," Bumblebee said in agreement.

Aly pulled out her cellphone and punched in Zoe's number. After she didn't answer her cell, Aly called her house. Bumblebee watched as a frown formed on her face after she was finished talking.

"What's wrong?" he asked in concern.

"Nothing as far as I know. Zoe's just went out on a walk and left her phone at her house."

"That's bad?"

"Well I think I've established that walking around town alone can be a bad thing," she pointed out.

"You want to go try to find her?"

"I think it might be a good idea. You know just to be on the safe side."

* * *

><p>Zoe sighed as she sat down on the ground. She was in a small isolated part of town that she and Aly had used as a shortcut before Aly got her Camaro. Actually after she had got the Camaro, Aly had pretty much flat out tried to avoid ever coming there again. Another mystery about her supposed best friend, but Zoe wasn't going to dwell too much on that mystery now. If Aly was avoiding this spot, it was the perfect spot for her to be alone and think. She pulled out her ponytail holder and let her hair down – making the blue streaks she had added to the bottom portion of her blonde hair stand out against her green tank top.<p>

"What am I going to do?" she groaned.

She hadn't wanted to get mad at Aly, honestly she hadn't, but this time it was hard for her not to. Her best friend was too stubborn for her own good. Something wasn't right with her car and if Zoe could tell that, then Aly should have been able to too. But no, she just had to deny it and say that nothing was wrong with it. And then there was her reaction to the whole government thing. Looking back on her conversation with Aly, she almost acted like she was hiding something. If Aly wasn't hiding anything the mention of a guy claiming to be from the government thinking that her car was an alien would have Aly giving her a "are you serious" look, instead she had a look on her face as if she had been caught. Something about it just didn't make sense. Maybe she should just call Aly and try to talk to her. Maybe if she wasn't acting as hostile, Aly might open up and explain everything. Zoe reached in the pocket of her capris to discover that she didn't have her cell with her.

_Crap, how many times has mom told me not to forget to bring my phone with me when I go out somewhere? Guess I'll have to call Alley Cat when I get home._

Zoe stood up and was about to start back to her house right as a midnight blue sports car with purple decaling pulled up in front of her. The driver rolled down the window and gave a small smile to Zoe. She had short bluish-black hair and violet eyes.

"Sorry to startle you," she said, "but I think I'm lost. Maybe you could help me."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and Moonraider belong to me.**

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><p>Moonraider watched as the human in front of her took a hesitant step away from her vehicle mode. Clearly the girl wasn't as careless as she had hoped she would be. She had enough sense to know when she shouldn't trust someone or something. Of course that was only going to make Moonraider's job more difficult. She needed to persuade this girl to contact Sector Seven so her plan could move along and she had no time to waste.<p>

"Umm I'm not that great at giving directions. There's a gas station a little ways down the road over there. Maybe someone there could help you?"

"Oh I'm sure you could be of great assistance to me. I'm in a bit of a rush you see," Moonraider said through her holoform.

A small ping on her radar alerted the Decepticon femme of an incoming Autobot. No doubt it was the youngling with his human pet. They certainly wouldn't help her with the human in front of her and if she wanted her plan to move forward, she was just going to have to speed things along. Moonraider deactivated her holoform, noticing the shock that appeared on the human's face when she did so, and transformed into her robot mode. The human tried to back away, but ended up tripping and falling down. Moonraider took a step closer to her and lifted her off the ground up to where she was level with her optics, causing the human to release a scream of pure terror.

"I was hoping that you wouldn't be difficult, but you're proving to be otherwise. An Autobot is approaching and I need to speak with you in private, so you're going to be coming with me," Moonraider said as she transformed back into vehicle mode, this time with the human inside.

As she reactivated her holoform, she also tightly wrapped a seatbelt around the human. After all, she didn't want her to try to escape just yet.

"Now I'm going to ask you a few questions and you are going to answer them truthfully if you want to leave alive. Is that clear?"

A frightened nod was her only response.

"Very well, let's begin. You are Zoe Isabelle Smith, correct?"

"Yes," Zoe answered her voice barely a whisper.

"And you're good friends with Alyson Marie Rose? And she has recently come into possession of a Chevrolet Camaro that you think is possessed?"

"How do you know about that!" Zoe asked in alarm. _Crap have I been stalked by a freaking robot car thing? _

"I have my ways. Now answer the question!"

"Yes and yes."

"You were approached the other day by a man named Simmons who questioned you about this Camaro?"

"Yes and I told him he was crazy."

"I imagine you've changed your mind now," Moonraider chuckled.

"So Aly's car is an alien?"

"Her car is a Cybertronian just like I am. The only difference between us is that he is an Autobot and I am a Decepticon."

Moonraider was met by silence.

"I'm dreaming aren't I? You're not real and I'm at home in bed fast asleep. Because there is no way that this could really be happening."

"Oh I am very real," Moonraider replied tightening the seatbelt around Zoe's body, causing her to gasp for breath. "And you are going to do exactly what I tell you to do."

"W-why should I? Y-you've kidnapped me, so why should I want to do anything for you?" Zoe struggled to ask. The seatbelt around her was way too tight and was really starting to hurt. She couldn't help but wonder what she had done to have this happen to her.

"Because I know where you live Zoe. I know a lot of things about you. The internet is a very insightful source. I know that your parents are divorced and that you live with your mother. I know that you have a little sister. And I know that you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to any of them or any of your friends, like Aly. Aly is friends with some of my enemies and she is a good target for me and the other Decepticons to hurt the Autobots. So many people I can hurt if you don't do what I say. Now you don't want that to happen, do you Zoe?"

"N-no."

"I thought so. Now you are going to contact Agent Simmons and tell him that you were wrong and that you think that your friend's car really is one of the aliens he's looking for. You are not, under any circumstances, to tell him or anyone else about me. I will know if you do and you will not like what I have in store if you disobey my orders. After that you are to wait for further instructions from me. Understand?"

"Y-yes."

"Good," Moonraider said as she pulled in front of Zoe's house and released the seatbelt.

Zoe wasted no time in jumping out of the car and running inside of her house and into her room. Once she was in the safety of her own room she allowed herself to plop down on her bed and let the few tears of fear drip down her face. What had Aly gotten them mixed up in? Her best friend was friends with aliens and now a government agent and a psycho robot was after her, and it terrified her. She remembered what the robot had said and picked up her cellphone that was lying next to her bed with a trembling hand and punched in the number that Simmons had given her.

"H-hi Agent Simmons?" Zoe gulped trying to calm her nerves. "I think I was wrong about the aliens."

* * *

><p>Aly sighed as she sat on Bumblebee's shoulder outside of the Autobot base. While she and Bumblebee had had no luck in finding Zoe, a quick call to her house told her that Zoe was home and refusing to talk to her. She knew that Bumblebee was getting bored, but she didn't want to be inside of the base where Ironhide was at and she really didn't want to go home and have to tell her parents that she and Zoe were fighting. They would end up asking why and then she would either have to lie to them some more or have to explain that Zoe thought her car was an alien. And right now both options would probably end up blowing up in her face.<p>

"Aly do you want me to take you home?" Bumblebee asked noticing how his human friend wasn't acting like her usual self.

"No, I don't know how to explain why Zoe and I are fighting to my parents and lying is going extremely bad for me lately and I hate doing it."

"I'm sorry that we're making you have to do that Aly. Maybe… maybe we should just leave. We're really making your life more complicated."

"Did you know that a few months ago I used to wish that I had a brother or sister? My parents have been busy lately so I don't see them as much and sometimes Zoe is busy doing stuff with her family so we can't hang out. I wanted a brother or sister so I would have someone to hang out with when everyone else was busy. I don't wish about that anymore. You know why? Because you're close enough to being a brother to me Bumblebee. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's the truth," Aly said.

Bumblebee had to smile at that. Like Aly, he had no siblings, so he liked the thought of having her as a sister.

"But what about having to lie to your parents and you and Zoe fighting? It's because of us that that's happening."

"I know, but like I said, I don't see my parents that much right now and even if you did leave Zoe's probably still going to be mad at me. So you leaving would only leave me alone."

"Okay then I won't leave."

"Good."

The two were silent for a moment before a question popped into Bumblebee's head.

"Hey Aly, how did you and Zoe become friends in the first place?"

"We went to the same daycare when we were little. The two of us decided that we were going to have a band someday, so we were going to be friends forever. The band thing clearly didn't work out, probably because even though Zoe is a pretty rockin' singer, I am a terrible drummer and can't play guitar to save my life," Aly smiled at the memory of her and Zoe having band practice before sighing. "We've never fought like this before. I mean sure we've had a few arguments before, I think most friends do, but she's never refused to talk to me afterwards. I don't know what to do."

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

"Seriously 'Bee, that's all you have for me?"

"Sorry little sister, but I don't know Zoe as well as you do."

"Hey I thought you said that if you were human you might be younger than me, so shouldn't you be the little brother?" Aly grinned.

"I've still been alive longer than you, so I'm the older one. You're just going to have to deal with it."

"Killjoy," she pouted as she noticed it was getting dark out. "Dark already?"

"I guess I should probably be getting you home now," Bumblebee sighed.

"Probably," she agreed. "Getting grounded isn't going to help things any, so we should go."

Bumblebee sat Aly down on the ground before transforming into his vehicle mode and opening the door for her to get in.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and Moonraider belong to me.**

* * *

><p><em>I'm never going to be able to sleep in late again. <em>

That thought lingered in Aly's mind as she laid in her bed listening to the sound of Bumblebee tapping on her window for the second morning in a row. She knew that she should probably get up and open the window to see what he wanted, but she really didn't want to get up. According to her clock it was six o'clock in the morning. This was even earlier than when he woke her up yesterday! Idly she wondered why he was waking her up now. Yesterday it had been to tell her to go to the beach with Zoe. Aly hoped that whatever Bumblebee wanted, it didn't deal with her at all. She had tried to patch things up with Zoe, but since her best friend wasn't going to talk to her, she was done. Zoe was going to have to be the one to initiate any future attempts at fixing their friendship now. Aly let out a small sigh as she finally crawled out of bed. Ignoring Bumblebee really wasn't a good idea. For one thing he would probably continue tapping on her window for another hour or start calling her cellphone until she answered, and another if she never did answer he would probably think that something bad had happened to her.

"So why am I waking up early today?" she questioned as she opened up the window.

"The new Autobots will be arriving in another hour. I thought that you might want to be there when they arrive, plus Optimus thought it would be a good idea for you to be there as well."

"Oh cool, let me get ready real quick and I'll be right out."

Aly threw on a blue and pink halter top and a pair of denim shorts. As she opened up her door, she glanced down the hall to see that her parents' bedroom door was still closed. Great both of them were still asleep. When she got downstairs she wrote a quick note telling them that she went to hang out with some friends and that she would be back later. With that done she slipped on her favorite pair of boots, grabbed her black jacket, and headed outside.

"So did you find out which Autobots are coming?" Aly asked once she and Bumblebee were on the road towards the Autobot base.

"Not yet, we probably won't know until they land."

"How many do you think there will be?"

"Three or four probably," Bumblebee replied. "That's the usual number we have on individual teams now."

"That's not a lot."

"Cybertron is a dead planet now and everyone is scattered all over the place. It's hard to tell how many of us are left."

"I'm sorry about Cybertron 'Bee."

"It's okay; Earth's our new home now and hopefully we won't lose it."

"Hey mi casa es su casa – I would say my planet is your planet, but I'm not sure how to say planet in Spanish."

"So if anyone wants to kick us off of Earth, you'll speak in our defense?"

"Umm sure, though I'm not sure if anyone would listen to a sixteen year old," Aly said as they arrived outside the Autobot base. Optimus and the others were already outside waiting.

"Hello Alyson, Bumblebee," Optimus greeted as Bumblebee transformed and walked over to them.

Aly returned the greeting before noticing that the Autobot leader was smiling. She thought back and she couldn't remember _ever _seeing him smile in the short time she had known the Autobots. It was weird actually seeing something other than the usual stoic expression on his face and she couldn't help but wonder what had him smiling. The puzzled look on Bumblebee's face told her that she wasn't the only one confused, but he apparently figured it out because a few seconds later his look of confusion disappeared.

"She's with them isn't she?" Bumblebee asked looking up at the Autobot leader.

"I believe so."

The human teen nudged Bumblebee's head with her elbow and shot him a look asking who he was talking about. The scout replied with a look that said she would have to wait and see. Sometimes it amazed Aly how quickly she and Bumblebee had learned to read each other's expressions. She turned her attention towards the direction that the Autobots were looking and waited to see the new 'Bots.

It was five minutes later before she saw the faint outline of three cars off in the distance. Once they got a little closer Aly was able to make out a few more details: two of the cars were a silver/gray color and the third was a pinkish color. Aly assumed that the pink one was the "she" that Bumblebee had referred to and watched as the trio transformed in front of them. All three of them paused and looked at her curiously – making Aly feel very uncomfortable – before turning their attention to Optimus.

"Elita, Sideswipe, Jazz welcome to Earth. You remember Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee."

"What's that thing on 'Bee's shoulder?" Sideswipe asked looking back at Aly again.

"I'm not a thing!"

"Careful Sideswipe, you insult her and she won't shut up," Ironhide grumbled.

"This is our liaison to the human world, Alyson," Optimus introduced. "Bumblebee rescued her from being killed by Starscream and she has since remained our ally."

"It's nice to meet you Alyson, I'm Elita One," Elita smiled bending down slightly so she could see her better.

"It's nice to meet you too," Aly replied.

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later Aly and Bumblebee were driving around the town. The new Autobots were in a meeting with Optimus and the Autobot leader had told them that it wasn't required for the two of them to attend. Bumblebee had explained to Aly that it was just about laying low and trying to remain undetected, which would be extremely boring, so they had decided to go for a drive instead.<p>

"So are you going to catch me up to speed on the new Autobots?" Aly asked after a few minutes.

"I figured you were going to ask that," Bumblebee replied. "Let's see, I guess I'll start with Jazz. He's one of Optimus' closest friends after Ironhide and Ratchet. He's a really fun guy and I think he's going to love Earth a lot. Sideswipe is a warrior and he has a twin named Sunstreaker. It's weird seeing the two of them apart."

"Why's that?"

"Well twins on Cybertron are pretty rare. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are split spark twins, which means they share half of the same spark. Because of that they're closer than other siblings on Cybertron and it would really hurt one of them if the other died."

"Is Sunstreaker dead?"

"I doubt it, they probably got separated or something, but you'd have to ask Sides to be sure."

"Okay well that leaves Elita, tell me about her."

"Elita is Optimus' sparkmate."

"Sparkmate?"

"In human terms, she would be his wife."

"That's cool, and a little weird. Optimus just never struck me as the type to be married. He just seems so serious all the time."

"Well most of the time he is, but other times he lightens up. Especially around Elita, you'll see for yourself soon enough," Bumblebee said.

"If you say so," Aly shrugged. "Okay new question. If you guys have siblings and married couples, does that mean that you also have parents?"

"Yeah we do, but we call them creators on Cybertron."

"Oh well who are your creators then?"

"I don't really know who my real ones were. We think that they were killed since after a battle Optimus found me all alone. He took me and he and Elita basically adopted me and raised me as their own, so likewise I view them as my creators."

"That was really nice of them. I guess both you and Optimus are glad to have her on Earth now."

"We are," Bumblebee replied in agreement. "I know that Optimus has really missed her a lot."

* * *

><p>Megatron let out a growl as he looked over the report that Soundwave had given him. Apparently one of his soldiers was sending out transmissions to a currently unknown source. Soundwave was currently attempting to locate the source that the transmissions were being sent to and while Megatron had faith that his communications officer would succeed in his task, he wanted to know who was sending them in the first place as soon as possible. This was why he had called for Starscream to meet in in the bridge of the <em>Nemesis<em>. While his Second-in-Command and Air Commander could be traitorous, this work wasn't his – Starscream was much more direct in his attempts to overthrow him. But that didn't mean that Megatron couldn't strike fear in his subordinate to get him to find out who was sending the transmissions.

"You called Lord Megatron?" Starscream asked as he entered the bridge.

"Yes Starscream. Soundwave has informed me that someone aboard this ship is sending out transmissions. Soundwave is currently trying to determine where the transmissions are being sent, but no one seems to know who is sending them out. Are you aware of any of this?"

"Are you insinuating that I'm the one who is doing it!"

"You've betrayed me more than once Starscream, it would stand to reason that you wouldn't hesitate to do it again," Megatron replied taking a step towards the Seeker.

"I've made no attempts on your life for quite a while! After several failures I've decided that I'm better off just waiting for someone else to snuff your spark instead of doing it myself. Agh!" Starscream exclaimed as Megatron backhanded him against a console.

"I am no fool Starscream!" Megatron shouted as he hefted the Seeker back up by one of his wings. "I know that you are not the one sending the transmissions, that's much too clever for you to think it up."

Megatron dug his claws into the wing, causing Starscream to gasp in pain when he snarled at the insult.

"But your remarks towards me are going to cost you. If you do not find whoever is sending out these transmissions and why they are doing it, you'll be the one to receive their punishment. Is that clear?

"What! Lord Megatron that –"

"I said is that clear Starscream?" Megatron growled tightening his grip on the wing.

"Y-yes Lord Megatron."

"Good," Megatron dropped Starscream to the ground and turned to leave the bridge. "You have two Earth days to complete your task."

Starscream watched as Megatron left. How did he get into this mess?


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the canon characters. My OCs do belong to me though.**

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><p>The sight of a pink Maserati Granturismo S driving close beside a red and blue Peterbilt would typically be a peculiar sight, but most people didn't notice it as the sun began to set. For the Autobot leader and his sparkmate this was perfect as it gave them the opportunity to spend time alone with each other. This was something that they had not had the chance to do in quite a long time. Optimus had decided to take Elita out to a secluded area where they would be completely alone and not have to worry about any interruptions like they would back at the base. When they arrived at their destination, the two of them transformed and Optimus watched as Elita looked around.<p>

"So this is Earth," Elita said as she looked at the sunset. "It's a very beautiful planet."

"Yes it is," Optimus nodded in agreement. "I only hope that it will not share the same fate as Cybertron."

"How do you think that the humans will react when they discover that we are here?"

"I imagine that there will be some like Alyson who are welcoming of us after meeting us. But I fear many will not like us being here. It appears that most humans do not trust things that they cannot explain."

"Well you've gotten one to trust us. That's a start."

"Yes, though I believe we have Bumblebee to thank for that. Had he not rescued her from Starscream, we would not have her as a human ally."

"She and Bumblebee seem close."

"They are," Optimus replied. "I overheard her tell Bumblebee that he was close enough to be a brother to her the other night."

A slight smile formed on Optimus' face as he said that. He was glad to see that a close bond had formed between Bumblebee and Aly. It proved that it was possible for their two species to coexist. Now if only Ironhide could get along with Aly. The Autobot leader had no idea why the two of them had such a hard time being in the same room with each other without one of them getting annoyed or mad at the other. He was going to have to think of something to fix that. But that could wait until later. Right now all he wanted to do was spend time with his sparkmate. They had been apart for far too long and her presence was something that he had desperately missed.

* * *

><p>Aly blew a strand of her now curly hair out of her face as she sat down at the table in the restaurant where she was eating dinner with her parents. Well it was <em>supposed <em>to be dinner with her parents. Somewhere down the line it had turned into a "lets meet one of dad's clients" dinner, and she absolutely loathed those. It wasn't the fact that she had to dress up for them, hence the curly hair and the fact that she was now wearing a solid black dress with a tiny light blue butterfly at the bottom and the black choker with a blue gem in the center, she actually liked dressing up most of the time. It was just that she always felt like she was invisible at these dinners. She would be introduced and then she would fade into the background while her parents and her dad's client talked business. It was no fun at all and she would much rather be back at home hanging out with Bumblebee. She took a sip of water while she watched as a man walked up to the table and shook hands with her dad.

"I'd like to introduce my wife Elizabeth and my daughter Alyson. Liz, Aly, this is Seymour Simmons."

Aly almost spat out her water when her dad introduced the man. The man's last name was Simmons? Which happened to be the exact same name as the man from the government that Zoe had threatened to call? This was either one big coincidence, unlikely, or this wasn't some dinner with a client of her dad's, but instead this was a dinner with the man that was after her friends. So much for fading into the background; Aly had the feeling that she was going to end up being the center of several conversations this time and she was going to have to be on her guard. One slip up and the Autobots could be revealed.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Simmons," Aly politely smiled. _Let the games begin. _

"It's nice to meet you as well Miss Rose. I have to admit this now Mr. Rose, I didn't come here for legal advice. You see I'm from the government and I am currently on a case investigating some stolen cars. One of these cars happens to match a description of your daughter's Camaro."

Aly's smile faltered, "What?"

Simmons was supposed to be asking questions that would get her to admit things about the Autobots. He wasn't supposed to be claiming that her car was stolen. What kind of an argument was she supposed to put up against that?

"Are you suggesting that I stole my car?" she questioned.

"No, of course I'm not suggesting that Miss Rose. But I believe that whomever you bought the car from, may have stolen it. Because of this your Camaro is being impounded during the remainder of the investigation."

"You can't do that! Dad tell him!"

"Aly calm down. Mr. Simmons I must say that this is rather unexpected. Do you have any proof that my daughter's car may have been previously stolen?"

"While there currently is no solid evidence, the descriptions of the cars are extremely similar. This is why it is being impounded, so we can do a more accurate inspection of it. We may also need to question Miss Rose about it as well later on. If our investigation proves that the car is not stolen, then she can have it back."

_In other words, if they don't find any proof that Bumblebee is an alien I can have him back. _Aly thought to herself. _But if they do find proof then we've lost him forever. That can't happen._

"You can't take my car. It wasn't stolen and it's mine, so stay away," she warned.

"Alyson, stop. Mr. Simmons you should have told me what this was about in the first place, I do not approve of lying. If you must take the car, then I suppose there's nothing we can do to stop you without impeding on the investigation. But I do trust my daughter's judgment and if she says that the car wasn't stolen, then I believe her. When will you be taking the Camaro?"

"It's being taken away as we speak," Simmons replied.

Aly felt her heart sink. This could not be happening. Sector Seven could not be taking Bumblebee away from her. They couldn't! Maybe somehow he had got away or had been at the Autobot base when Sector Seven arrived. That gave her a small amount of reassurance. Bumblebee was clever; there was a chance that he would have been able to escape. But Bumblebee was also a loyal Autobot and Aly knew that the Autobots did not harm humans. If Sector Seven got him, he wouldn't fight back. She wasn't going to have any peace of mind until she knew what had happened. Before anyone could say anything, Aly had jumped out of her seat and rushed outside while pressing the button on her speed dial for Bumblebee's comm. The phone rang several times, but Bumblebee never answered.

"I told you that your "car" has been apprehended."

Aly spun around to see Simmons standing behind her. She wanted nothing more than to just smack the smug grin off of the government agent's face.

"What are you going to do to h – it?"

"We're going to study it. Maybe some experiments and dissections as well. You probably won't be getting it back, just so you know."

The next thing Aly knew her fist was connecting with Simmons' face. The man stumbled backwards in surprise – he clearly hadn't expected her reaction to be that. Too bad, Bumblebee was family to her and now he was gone all because of Simmons. He deserved to be punched in the face and Aly hoped that she had at least broken his nose. While she would have loved to have stayed to see what Simmons next reaction would be, she needed to make another phone call and there was no way she was going to let Simmons hear it. So she ran off again to a more private area and once she was sure that no one was around to listen in, she punched in a new number. This time her call was answered almost straight away and she was forced to say the five words that she wished weren't true.

"Optimus, Sector Seven got Bumblebee."

* * *

><p>To say Aly was surprised when Elita pulled up into the parking lot of the restaurant seven minutes after she got off the phone with Optimus would be an understatement. She had known that one of the Autobots was coming to pick her up, the Autobot leader had told her that much, and she had told her parents that she wasn't feeling well and that one of her friends was going to come pick her up. But she hadn't expected that Elita would be the one to pick her up and honestly she had hoped that it wouldn't be her. She didn't have anything against Elita, it was just Bumblebee <em>had <em>told her that Optimus and Elita had raised him as their own, so now Aly was stuck with the Autobot that was pretty much Bumblebee's mom and that only made her feel guiltier about what had happened.

Aly walked over and climbed inside the passenger side of the vehicle and saw that Elita had her holoform activated. She knew that the Autobots used holoforms in their vehicle modes occasionally, so it didn't surprise her too much that Elita was using one right now. There was something about her holoform that reminded Aly of a princess. She wasn't sure why though, since she couldn't think of any princess that had pinkish blonde hair and electric blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" Elita asked in a concerned voice.

"I guess," she quietly replied. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"Bumblebee told me that you and Optimus basically adopted him and now Sector Seven has him. If he wasn't my guardian then he wouldn't have been at my house and they wouldn't have gotten him. So it's sort of my fault and I'm sorry."

"None of this is your fault," Elita assured. "This could have happened even if he wasn't your guardian. Bumblebee is very brave and has been through worse. We'll find a way to get him back."

"But Simmons said they might experiment on him and dissect him! He's been through worse than that!"

"Believe it or not he has. Bumblebee has been tortured to near death before."

"What?"

Elita's holoform smiled when she heard the concern in Aly's voice. It was clear that the teen had not been joking when she had told Bumblebee that he was close to being a brother to her. Elita _was _worried about what was happening to the youngling right now too, but she was hiding her worry for Alyson's sake. The human was already blaming herself for what had happened to Bumblebee and Elita sure wasn't going to elevate that guilt in any way. Instead she was going to reassure her that they would find the scout and get him back. She just hoped that was telling the truth about that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and Moonraider however do belong to me.**

* * *

><p>Zoe had been friends with Aly long enough to know that when she was mad, it was best to avoid her for a while, so when she had received a "thank you" call from Agent Simmons last night, she knew that Aly most likely no longer had her demon car and was going to be ticked off about losing it. The best thing to do would be avoid Aly for at least a day to let her cool off some before apologizing. Unfortunately for Zoe though, they went to the same school. Sure being in different grades kept them apart for most of the day, but there was still the chance of bumping into each other in the hallway. She had been doing a good job at avoiding her best friend for most of the day when she spotted her waiting at the exit of the school with her arms crossed. And the moment the red-headed teen caught site of Zoe she marched right on over, her light blue eyes flashing with a mixture of anger and determination.<p>

"Aly, I'm sorry –"

"Save it. Do you still have Simmons' number?"

"Yeah, I think it's still at my house. Why do you ask?"

"I need it. He took my car and I'm going to get it back."

It hadn't taken Aly long to come to the decision that she would rescue Bumblebee herself. While she knew that the Autobots would try to find the scout themselves, there wouldn't be much they could do to free him without exposing themselves. She on the other hand was not Cybertronian, so she didn't have to worry about that. Plus this would be the perfect opportunity to show her usefulness to the Autobots. She felt bad at times not being able to do much to help them with the Decepticons and she wanted to do something to help the Autobots. There were only two problems with her plan currently. One: she had no idea where Bumblebee was being held, and two: she was going to have to convince Optimus Prime to let her go. That was certainly going to be a challenge. In fact she had spent most of the previous night going back and forth between worrying about Bumblebee and trying to think up some extremely convincing reasons why she should be the one to go to Sector Seven.

"Aly you don't honestly believe that you're going to be able to convince him to give you back your car do you?" Zoe asked.

"I'm getting my car back!"

"Alright, alright. Calm down. Just meet me at my house and I'll give you his number."

"You need a ride?"

"You don't have a car, remember?"

"I have a friend picking me up."

"I'll just meet you at my house," Zoe said. She had a feeling that Aly's 'friend' would end up being another alien robot thing, and she didn't want to become any more involved with them.

"Alright, then I'll see you soon."

Zoe waited until Aly was out of sight before heading outside of the building, where she was dismayed to see a familiar looking sports car waiting for her. To make matters worse, Moonraider's holoform was standing out in front of the car looking straight at her. There was no way she would be able to run off without the robot finding her.

_Why me? What did I do to deserve this to happen to me?_ Zoe wondered to herself before taking a deep breath and walking over to the car.

"H-hi," Zoe stammered.

"Get in," Moonraider smirked.

The teen silently obeyed and climbed inside the passenger door while the holoform opened up the driver door and climbed inside. Once they were out of the parking lot, Zoe decided to speak up.

"What do you want now? I did what you asked and Simmons took away Aly's car," she quietly said. "She's mad just so you know."

"I might as well just tell you now, Decepticons don't like loose ends," the Decepticon femme sinisterly spoke. "If the Autobots hadn't got your little friend, I'm sure Megatron or Starscream would have taken care of her. She lucked up I suppose, you however have no one here to protect you."

"Aly's waiting for me at my house. If I don't show up she'll know that something's wrong," Zoe spoke up.

"Humph, she'll probably think that you lied and stood her up."

"There are also cameras at the school that would have seen me get inside here. I don't show up, Aly might get worried and tell my mom. My mom will panic and call the school, the cops will come check the cameras, and ten minutes later every patrol car will be out looking for you."

Moonraider contemplated the situation for a moment; she hadn't considered the cameras. She could just kill the human now and be done with her. It _would _make things much easier for her if she did. She wouldn't have to worry about her blabbing about her to the Autobots human pet. But killing her now would also make things messy. While most humans wouldn't suspect a Cybertronian killing her, after all as far as most of them were concerned they didn't exist, but the Autobots would consider the possibility of a Decepticon killing her. If the Autobots came to that conclusion, Lord Megatron would most likely find out as well. And if Lord Megatron found out… well she didn't want to know the consequences of that. The Decepticons were supposed to be keeping a low profile for the time being and being exposed on the evening news wouldn't be keeping a low profile. And then she would have to explain why she had killed the human in the first place, and she knew that wouldn't end well for her. Slag, she was going to have to let the human live.

"Only this once human will I let you go. Next time you won't be so lucky and my warning from before still remains. Don't breathe a word of me to any of the Autobots or your friend."

With that the Decepticon femme slammed on her breaks and opened up the passenger door. Zoe wasted no time in jumping out and running away from the Decepticon as fast as she could. By the time that she arrived back at her own house, she was out of breath. Aly was sitting outside of the door and quickly rushed over to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

The seventeen year old simply nodded her head before she noticed the pink car that Aly must have rode in. Zoe didn't know a lot about cars, but if it was clear to her that this one had to be expensive. There was a woman sitting inside, who was also looking at her in concern.

"Who's your friend?"

"Oh, umm that's…"

Aly looked back over at the woman as if she was unsure of what to call her. The woman simply smiled and got out of the car, allowing Zoe to get a better look at her. She had long wavy hair that appeared to be blonde, but also had a light pink tint to it. She was wearing an off the shoulder pink blouse and dark washed skinny jeans. She had pale skin, had light pink lips, and kind electric blue eyes.

"Hello, I'm Elita," she introduced herself standing at the back of the car.

"Hi, I'm Zoe. So Aly, you wanted Simmons' number?"

"Yes."

"Okay come on."

"I'll wait for you out here Aly," Elita said, getting back into the car.

"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes Elita," the redhead replied before following Zoe inside the house.

"She's like your car isn't she?" Zoe asked once they were inside her room.

Aly remained silent for a moment before answering, "Yeah she is."

"Why would you want to be involved with them? Isn't it dangerous hanging out with aliens?"

"You know when I first met the Autobots I really wanted nothing to do with them. Bumblebee was nice to me and Optimus seemed pretty nice too, but I wasn't really sure about Ratchet or Ironhide. I was still freaked out from the day before when Starscream tried to kill me and I wasn't sure if I could trust them. And Ironhide acted like a huge jerk which made me worry that I would end up getting killed. Then Optimus assigned Bumblebee to be my guardian, to make sure that the Decepticons wouldn't try to come after me. After that we just started talking and then we became friends. I knew that 'Bee wouldn't hurt me and he wouldn't let anyone else hurt me either. All of the Autobots sort of grew on me, even Ironhide, as much as I hate to admit that. They're my friends, and in the case of Bumblebee, my family."

"I'm sorry Simmons took him away."

"It's okay, I'll get him back."

Zoe dug around in one of her drawers before pulling out the card that Simmons gave her and handing it over to Aly.

"Here you go Alley Cat. So what's your plan?"

"Honestly I have no idea," Aly admitted. "I kind of doubt that Simmons will just tell me where they're keeping 'Bee, so I'm going to have to have the call traced."

"Could Elita do that?"

"I don't know I'll have to go ask her."

"Why can't she just come up here using her person thingy?"

"The Autobots can only use their holoforms around their vehicle modes right now. I think Ratchet is wanting to figure out a way for them to be able to use them for a further distance to help them blend in easier, but until he figures something out, they can't move any further."

"Oh that's good to know, I'll have to remember that." _No way am I ever getting in that evil witch's car again._

"Even if Elita can trace it, I still have to convince her and Optimus to let me go."

"Let me guess, they won't think you'd be able to handle it? I can't really blame them for thinking that. A sixteen year old against government agents doesn't exactly scream good idea."

"Well they can't go, so it has to be me," she replied before leaving the room.

Zoe simply shook her head before following her best friend back outside. She patiently waited while Aly asked Elita if she could trace the phone call. When Elita replied that she in fact could trace the call, Aly quickly punched in the number and waited for Simmons to answer. The phone conversation was short and Aly ended up ending the call after three minutes.

"Were you able to trace it Elita?"

"I was. Simmons is approximately three hours away from here."

"Great, let's go!" Aly grinned.

"No, the only place you're going Alyson is home," Elita stated. "This is much too dangerous for you."

"But Elita, I want to help. And you guys can't exactly just walk inside without someone noticing you."

Elita remained silent for several minutes, causing Zoe to look at Aly in confusion. She merely shrugged in response. She had no idea what was going on either. It was only a minute later that Aly's cell phone started to ring.

"Put it on speaker," Elita instructed as Aly answered.

It was only a moment later that Optimus Prime's voice could be heard through the phone.

"Alyson, Elita has told me that you wish to go find Bumblebee. Is this correct?"

"I do. I know that I'm not exactly the most qualified person to do this, but 'Bee is my friend and I want to help get him back. If any of you go, you'll have to expose yourselves to Sector Seven and more of you could end up getting captured. I don't have to worry about that as much and it would be easier for me to sneak around. And I'm not entirely defenseless. I _do _know martial arts after all. It may not be effective against a Decepticon, but it can work pretty well against another human."

"I believe that the agents at Sector Seven would be more trained than you Alyson," Optimus argued.

"I know, but just give me a chance. Please."

Optimus contacted Elita again through their bond, _(I do not like it, but do we have a choice?)_

_(I want Bumblebee back, as do you. I'll do my best to keep her safe.)_

_(Stay safe.)_

"Get inside Aly," Elita said. "We need to go."

Zoe felt goose bumps on her arms like she was being watched.

"Wait! I'm coming too," she quickly said.

"It's about time that we're on the same team again," Aly smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Transformers and Aly, Zoe, and Moonraider still belong to me.**

* * *

><p>"How are we even going to get in?"<p>

Aly turned to glance at Zoe before looking back at the building in front of them. In truth she hadn't really planned on how they would get inside the building where Sector Seven was holding Bumblebee, she had been more focused on just being able to get this far. But now they had an obvious problem. It wasn't like they could just walk straight through the door without getting caught; they were going to have to sneak around if they were going to be able to find Bumblebee. Elita was currently parked at the back of the building as an attempt at keeping anyone from getting too suspicious.

"Elita, can you tell if anyone is at the back door?" Aly questioned.

"My scanners are not picking up anyone standing directly at the door, but there is a chance that someone could be nearby. I can't say for certain."

"Well right now it looks like that's our best bet at getting in," the teen replied getting out of the car.

The moment she was out Elita's holoform flickered back to life, causing Zoe to jump from its sudden reappearance.

"Aly, please do not do anything that will involve yourself getting harmed. You are to find Bumblebee and help him get out if you can. If it is too dangerous, you are to come back here immediately."

"Don't worry Elita, I'll keep her out of trouble," Zoe said getting out and walking over to where Aly was standing. "Come on Alley Cat, let's go."

"You know you could have stayed with Elita if you wanted," Aly said as she and Zoe headed towards the back door.

"No offense, but I'm not really comfortable around your alien cars yet."

Zoe had a feeling that it would take a while before she got used to any of the nice aliens. Her encounters with Moonraider still had her freaked out and she knew that she was going to have to tell Elita, Aly, and the other robots about her encounters with her. It was likely that Moonraider wouldn't like her being around the Autobots and that might cause her to come back. And she wanted to avoid any more encounters with her at all costs.

"Besides," Zoe added. "You're going to need my help getting in. I'm kind of doubtful that they just left their back door unlocked to where anyone could just walk right in."

"And you know how to pick a lock?"

"Actually I do," she grinned, seeing the look of surprise on Aly's face. "Abby accidentally locked me out of the house one day. My mom wasn't home and my key was inside of the house, so I had to pick the lock with a bobby pin to get inside. It might take me a few minutes, but I'm pretty sure that I can get this door open too."

"Do you even have a bobby pin with you?"

"I do now," Zoe said pulling a pin out of Aly's hair that she had been using to keep her hair out of her eyes.

The blonde haired teen smirked and strode up to the door, bent down, and started to work on the lock.

_It's a good thing that I don't see any cameras out here, _Aly thought to herself glancing at the area around the door. _Otherwise we'd probably get caught before Zoe can get it open. And Sector Seven clearly has horrible funding to have such lousy security. Either that or they splurged on something way less important._

While she was waiting for her best friend to get the door unlocked, Aly began to wonder what she was going to see inside. She knew that there was a great chance that she would end up seeing Bumblebee being experimented on by the people inside and because of that, she needed to prepare herself. Freezing up could not be an option. She had to be able to get Bumblebee out of here.

"Got it!" Zoe exclaimed, drawing Aly's attention back to her. "You wanna go first?"

Aly nodded and walked inside of the building with Zoe close behind her. The two teens kept close to the walls, trying to stay out of sight of any cameras that might be hidden in the hallways. Both of them were instantly aware of how eerily silent the building was.

"Elita did take us to the right place right?" Zoe asked looking around.

"She and Optimus adopted Bumblebee; they want him back as much as I do. She wouldn't have taken us to the wrong place."

"Then why is it so quiet?"

"I don't know," Aly said quietly. "Maybe they weren't expecting anyone to come in the back. Or maybe they're all busy doing something else…"

"Like what?"

"Please don't make me answer that."

"Alright, then I guess we keep searching."

* * *

><p>Bumblebee stared at the ceiling as the humans around him continued to study various parts of his body. At least now it was only studying. Earlier they had started to pick apart his leg, but fortunately had stopped before they reached any of his energon lines. It had hurt, but he had forced himself to not make any sounds. He had hopes that if the Sector Seven men didn't think that he was alive, they might just let him go. So far, he had had no luck. Though one thing was for sure, he greatly disliked Simmons. If he hadn't been trying to keep his cover, he would have laughed when he heard Simmons complaining about Aly punching him in the nose. One thing was for sure; his little sister could take care of herself when it came to people like Simmons.<p>

"Begin electric shock testing," one of the Sector Seven scientists said. "See if it will give any reactions."

The Autobot scout hadn't been prepared for the feeling of electricity surging through his body. And he couldn't help but struggle to try to get away, letting out a pained moan. All of the humans jumped back in surprise, before aiming their weapons at him as an attempt at keeping him still. Bumblebee was trying to ignore them when his scanners picked up two life forms standing in the dark hallway that was behind him. He leaned his head backwards a tad to get a look at who was there and felt his spark clench when he saw that one of them was Aly. Her seeing him being harmed wasn't something that he never wanted. The Sector Seven men had clearly not seen her yet, but Bumblebee could detect a hint of anger in her eyes, and he was suspecting that she was going to end up doing something dangerous. He watched as she turned to the person behind her, who he could now tell was Zoe. It was only a second later that Zoe ran off and Aly remained in the hallway by herself. Bumblebee turned his focus away from her – there was no way he was going to let any of the Sector Seven agents and scientists know that she was there. Several minutes later there was a loud crash, and many of the agents left the room to go investigate.

"'Bee?"

Bumblebee turned his head to where he was facing the human teen that was climbing up on the examination table where he was being held captive. The moment she was up, she wrapped her arms around his arm, giving him a small hug – allowing Bumblebee to see just how worried she had been about him.

"Aly, you shouldn't be here. They'll catch you."

"And they'll hurt you. I saw what they were doing 'Bee. I'm not going to leave you here."

"Aly-"

"No!" she quietly hissed. "They are hurting you and I'm not just going to sit here and let them do that!"

"I figured you'd say that," he sighed.

"How do I get you out?" she asked looking at the bonds that were keeping Bumblebee attached to the large table.

"I was knocked out when they brought me here Aly, so I don't really know."

"Well I'll figure it out," she replied, pulling on the bonds.

"They're going to come back Aly."

"Zoe's keeping them busy."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that Miss Rose."

Aly and Bumblebee quickly turned their heads towards the direction of the new voice to see Simmons walking in, with another Sector Seven agent dragging Zoe into the room behind him. The seventeen year old looked apologetically at the two.

"Sorry Aly, I did my best."

"You tried Zoe, that's what counts," Aly said quietly.

"Now will you come down here and join us, or do I need to have someone help you?"

"Stay away from her," Bumblebee warned, glaring at Simmons.

"Oh so you can talk. That's good to know, you've just saved us from having to waste time having to discover that another way. Now we can get straight to finding out what makes you tick."

Aly hopped up and jumped off of the table and marched over to Simmons – anger clearly radiating off of her.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll let Bumblebee go Simmons," Aly said jabbing a finger in his face. "Because I can think of a place that would hurt a lot more than your nose if you try to hurt him again."

"Aly…" Bumblebee said, trying to get her to stop before she got herself into trouble.

"I don't think so," Simmons replied. "For all we know, the robot is a threat to national security. It won't be going anywhere until we know exactly how it works and how we can take it apart."

Before Aly could even say anything in response the room shook, knocking most of the humans to the ground. Bumblebee's scanners suddenly picked up a Decepticon signal coming from somewhere inside the building – most likely the cause of the shaking. This couldn't be happening. There couldn't be a Decepticon around while he was unable to do anything to protect the humans. At the very least maybe he would be able to convince Aly and Zoe to sneak out the way they had come in, though he was extremely doubtful that Aly would listen.

"Aly, Zoe," he called. The redhead and blonde teens quickly got off the ground and hurried over to him. "There's a Decepticon in here somewhere. You need to get out of here."

"Zoe can go get Elita, she's outside somewhere. I'm not leaving you," Aly said determinedly.

"It's too dangerous Aly."

"I don't care. I'm not going to go leave you by yourself."

Arguing with her was going to go nowhere, "Fine, but if things start getting bad, promise me that you'll leave."

"I promise. Hurry and find Elita, Zoe."

"I'm on it!"

Bumblebee and Aly watched as Zoe slipped off the table and headed down the back hallway that she and Aly came through to start with. Bumblebee glanced at Aly to see her anxiously glancing back and forth between Simmons, who was just now getting up, and towards the direction of where they could now hear footsteps coming from. He could detect a slight increase of her heart rate, making it clear to him that she was a little scared. He couldn't blame her, after all the only Decepticon she had seen in person before was Starscream, which was part of the reason he had wanted her to leave.

"If you're going to stay, would you mind at least hiding a little?" he asked her. "I don't know which 'Con is here and I don't want to risk them trying to hurt you."

For a moment Bumblebee thought that Aly was going to protest, but instead she climbed over to the other side of them, which wasn't facing the direction of the footsteps and lay down close to him. _Well at least now she'll be a little out of sight. _He focused his attention back on the approaching Decepticon. He watched as a pair of violet optics came into view, mere seconds before he got a good look at the Decepticon they belonged too.

The Decepticon was clearly a femme. She had midnight blue armor, trimmed with purple and black. She had a clear visor shielding her optics and a smug smirk on her face, which made Bumblebee feel uneasy. One thing was for sure, he had never seen this Decepticon before in his life, at least not that he remembered. The Sector Seven agents were all up and had their weapons aimed at her.

"Which one of you is Simmons?" she questioned, gazing over the humans. "I have a deal to make with you."


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and Moonraider belong to me.**

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><p>Bumblebee warily looked at the Decepticon femme that had walked into the room. A Decepticon that wanted to make a deal with a human? Something about that seemed very off to the scout. The fact that the human was Simmons made his feeling of wariness even worse. Bumblebee did not trust the Sector Seven agents and it would not surprise him in the least if they agreed to whatever deal the femme proposed. And the fact that he was still restrained and he had Aly next to him, made him feel even more uneasy. How was he supposed to protect her if he couldn't even move?<p>

"What kind of deal NBE?"

"The kind of deal that benefits both of us," Moonraider smirked. "You want more NBEs to study and I want some to go away. I think we could come to an arrangement that would make us both happy."

"What makes you think that I want more NBEs to study?" Simmons asked.

"I've hacked into your systems. You have two that aren't giving you any results because they're either deactivated or in stasis lock, and now the Autobots' pathetic youngling."

"You hacked us?" Simmons had a look of disbelief on his face.

"Such primitive technology you have. A sparkling could hack into it."

Moonraider glanced at the occupants of the room. Most of the humans appeared to be frightened by her, but a few, like Simmons, seemed intrigued. The Autobot scout had a wary and frustrated look about him. Clearly he wasn't pleased with being restrained with her being in the room. He was of no concern to her though.

"What's stopping us from just taking you now?" one of the agents spoke up.

Moonraider smirked, "Nothing. But if you did, I wouldn't be able to tell you how you could get better, NBEs as you called it."

"Better?" Simmons questioned.

"Our leaders would be far more impressive to you than I would be. It wouldn't be too hard to get at least one of them. You have your bait right there," she gestured towards Bumblebee.

"Optimus would never fall for a trap like that!" Bumblebee yelled.

Aly listened to everything that was going on and was finding it increasingly hard to remain quiet. She knew that she had told Bumblebee that she would remain out of sight so the Decepticon wouldn't know she was there, but someone was going to have to convince Simmons not to listen to her. He probably wouldn't listen or believe Bumblebee, and she had to admit that she was doubtful that he would listen to her either. After all she had punched him and threatened to hit him again, plus she wasn't sure if her diplomatic skills were really the best. But she had to give it a try. She hopped off of the table and walked out to where she was in plain view –much to Bumblebee's displeasure.

"Don't listen to her Simmons," she stated. "Decepticons aren't exactly trustworthy."

"And you are?" Moonraider sneered at the teen. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the scout's little pet found her way here."

"_Pet_?" Aly's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm no pet!"

"Really? You could have fooled me."

Aly grit her teeth together. This Decepticon was worse than Ironhide! She was going to have to keep her temper in check this time though. Unlike with Ironhide, there really wasn't anyone to stop the 'Con from trying to hurt her. Instead of focusing on the femme, Aly decided to turn her attention back to Simmons.

"Come on Simmons, Decept-i-con," she sounded out. "Deception is in their name! You can't trust her; she'll just end up stabbing you in the back after she gets whatever she wants. I mean it sounds like she wants to betray her own side, not exactly a team player."

"Oh so true girl," a new voice cut in.

Aly and Moonraider both froze as the unexpected newcomer walked into the room. Almost instantly the two of them and Bumblebee recognized the form of Starscream. While neither Aly nor Bumblebee was happy to see the Decepticon second-in-command, Moonraider was visibly angry. All of her work and planning… and now Starscream had arrived to ruin it! How had he found out where she was!?

"What are you doing here," she snarled at the Seeker.

"Simple, I am finding a traitor to the Decepticon cause."

"Oh you're one to talk about treachery Starscream. How many times have you unsuccessfully tried to kill Megatron?" Moonraider questioned. "Of course I shouldn't be surprised that you couldn't kill him. You couldn't even kill a pathetic human."

"Watch your words Moonraider," Starscream growled. "I may still let you live."

"Oh really, what's your catch? I have to pledge loyalty to you? Ha! You think that you would be a better leader than Megatron, but in reality, you're just the same."

"Why you…"

"Don't deny it. But I suppose you can't help it, you didn't have to rise up through the ranks of the Decepticon army. Everyone in the lower ranks heard the story at some point or another how a trine of Seekers were granted into Megatron's inner circle, simply because one intrigued Megatron enough to select him as his protégé. He made you what you are and all of his ideals are hardwired into your programming. _You're just like him_."

Within a millisecond, Starscream's fist collided with Moonraider's face, shattering part of the clear visor that shielded her optics. The femme stumbled back, but quickly regained her ground and went into a fighting stance. Aly warily made her way back over to Bumblebee while Simmons and his men backed away from the two Decepticons. Apparently they were at least wise enough to know to not stand close when a fight was about to break out.

"You should watch who you're insulting Moonraider," Starscream stated as he slashed at her again. "I was going to be merciful to you, but not anymore!"

Moonraider let out a hiss of pain when Starscream struck her. He was a better fighter than she had anticipated. While she had managed to get in a few hits, none of them were critical enough to get Starscream to back down even slightly. But she wasn't about to give up just yet.

"What's taking Zoe and Elita so long?" Aly asked Bumblebee as they watched the brawling Decepticons. She had attempted once again to remove the restraints that were keeping her guardian hostage, but they just wouldn't budge.

"I don't know," Bumblebee shook his head. "But you're getting out of here before this fight finishes."

"No, 'Bee I'm-"

"Not leaving me. I know, but Aly you have to," the scout sighed. "And you promised that you would if things get bad."

"Things aren't that bad yet…"

"Yet being the key word," he pointed out. "No matter which one of them wins, things aren't going to be great for us. And I can't protect you right now."

"All the more reason for me to stay," Aly replied. "If you can't protect me, then I'm going to protect you."


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and Moonraider belong to me.**

* * *

><p>If it hadn't of been for the fact that she was the reason Bumblebee had been captured by Sector Seven, Aly was pretty sure that she would have been feeling bad for Moonraider right about now. The femme was taking a pretty bad beating from Starscream after all and the teen was pretty doubtful that she was going to able to beat him now. She couldn't help but wince when Starscream bent one of her door wings back. Bumblebee had told her that door wings were slightly sensitive appendages and that when they were damaged, it hurt a lot. Bumblebee kept giving her a pleading look. Aly knew that he wanted her to leave now, but she just couldn't. Sure he was her guardian and it was his job to protect her, but he was also her brother, so shouldn't she protect him? She thought that she should, but it was clear that Bumblebee had another opinion entirely. Though she could understand where he was coming from. After all it was no longer humans that she was protecting him from, it was giant alien robots. Giant alien robots that could step on her and squish her like an ant. Aly tried not to think too much about that as she watched the two fighting Decepticons.<p>

"Starscream enough."

Both of the Decepticons paused in their fighting – well Starscream paused, Moonraider collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Bumblebee tensed and a look of fear showed itself on his face as the newcomer walked in. The hulking form of the Decepticon leader caused the room to slightly shake as he walked closer to his second in command.

_Megatron can't be here! Not while Aly's here! _Bumblebee thought with panic. At least the Decepticon leader hadn't seemed to notice them yet, but as soon as he was done with Starscream and Moonraider, Bumblebee was worried that they would catch his attention.

"'Bee?" the human whispered. "Who's that?"

"Megatron…" Bumblebee hesitantly answered, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

Aly's light blue eyes widened at Bumblebee's words. This was Megatron? This was the Decepticon leader that the Autobots had told her about? He was so much bigger than she had expected. He had to be the same size as Optimus, if not a tad bit bigger. The major difference though, was while Optimus' form could be intimidating at first; you soon would realize that he wouldn't harm you. Megaton on the other hand was terrifying. There were many sharp points on his armor and there was a huge cannon on one of his arms. It was clear that he wouldn't hesitate to hurt anyone who got in his way.

Now she was hoping that Elita had called the other Autobots too. If she hadn't, they were going to be in a lot of trouble.

Megatron glanced at his second in command without much thought. He was impressed at the Seeker's work, but he would not say anything to Starscream about that. He turned his entire focus to the femme on the ground. Moonraider shrank under his furious gaze, her damaged form trembling. Energon was oozing out of her wounds and if it was not patched up, there was a high chance of her going into stasis. Megatron charged up his fusion cannon and aimed it at Moonraider.

"You are no longer any use to me Moonraider. I will not tolerate traitors in my army."

"A-and yet you l-let the biggest traitor stand by your side," Moonraider weakly chuckled.

Megatron let out a growl and fired his cannon, efficiently knocking the femme out. She wasn't dead… yet, but without any medical attention soon, she wouldn't be causing him trouble anymore. Megatron turned his head and noticed the Autobot's scout strapped to the human's examination table.

"Well if it isn't my brother's precious scout," Megatron sneered as he strode over to Bumblebee, before glancing at Aly. "And you've brought a little pet too."

Unlike when Moonraider had called her a pet, Aly remained silent. She was annoyed by the comment, but her fear was currently overruling her urge to fuss about it. Considering who her insulter was it was probably a good thing. She looked away from Megatron, and focused on her guardian next to her instead. Bumblebee was trembling. She had never seen him this scared before; though that could be because of the short time she had known him.

"I see you remember our last encounter," the Decepticon leader tapped a claw on Bumblebee's throat, causing the youngling's trembling to increase.

"Still threatening younglings I see."

The sound of Elita's voice was a huge relief for both Aly and Bumblebee. Help had finally arrived.

"Elita, I'm surprised to see that Optimus is not with you. After all, my brother doesn't normally let his sparkmate confront me alone."

"Sometimes we have no choice in the matter. Now step away from Bumblebee and Aly."

Elita had her right arm transformed into a blaster, and had it aimed at Megatron. It was clear that she was going to protect the scout and human. If Megatron or Starscream attempted to harm either one of them, they were going to have to deal with her.

"I will never understand why you Autobots are so interested in protecting a pathetic human," Starscream scoffed, receiving a glare from Aly.

"Alyson is under Autobot protection. If you harm her, or any other human for that matter, you deal with all of us."

: Lord Megatron if I may, this is an opportunity that we cannot pass up. One of Prime's most trusted soldiers, his sparkmate, and their human ally… any one of those could give us an advantage over the Autobots if we captured them. : Starscream sent through the comm.

: For once I agree with you Starscream. But I will not take merely one. Grab the human; she will give us the leverage we need. :

Starscream looked at the human female. She didn't appear to be paying much attention to himself or to Megatron for that matter. More than likely she was terrified at the current predicament and was trying to keep herself from going into shock.

'_It's only about to get worse for you girl,' _Starscream smirked to himself.

While Elita and Bumblebee weren't paying much attention to him or the human, Starscream slipped over and snatched her up – making sure to place one talon over her mouth to where she wouldn't be able to speak. After all there was no point in alerting the two Autobots to what he and Megatron were planning before it was necessary. Aly immediately struggled in his grip, but Starscream wasn't going to let go and he made sure to tighten his hold on her slightly to make her stop her muffled screams.

"You have left me with too good of an opportunity here Elita. My brother's sparkmate and his scout would make excellent prisoners for me."

"Optimus is on his way Megatron-" Elita started to say, but Megatron cut her off.

"Well it appears I don't have much time to waste. One of you _will _come with me as a prisoner and we will be gone before Optimus arrives."

"And if we refuse?"

"Then you won't have a human to worry about anymore."

Elita's and Bumblebee's optics widened when they saw that Starscream had Aly. Bumblebee quickly started to struggle to get out of the bonds that were keeping him from helping his friend. In a split second his helpless optics met her terrified eyes, and Bumblebee knew that if he wanted to make sure that she was going to be safe, he was going to have to let Megatron capture him again… But right before he could say anything, Elita spoke.

"I'll go."

Bumblebee looked at Elita in surprise right before the femme sent him a message over the comm.

: I am not letting Megatron have you as a captive again Bumblebee. When we got you back last time, you were near death. I don't want to see that again. :

: But he has Aly… :

: And I will keep her safe. Do you believe that she would be better off if she had to see you tortured? Don't make this more traumatizing for her. And Optimus will be able to find me, and by extension Aly, through our bond. It would be more difficult with you. :

Bumblebee gave Elita a look of defeat, before looking back at Aly with sadness. He couldn't believe that the Decepticons were about to take her away. Now he felt like he had failed as her guardian. He was supposed to keep her away from the Decepticons, and he hadn't been able to do that. Optimus would probably take him off of guardian duty once they were able to get her and Elita back.

"I'm going Megatron," Elita restated. "You're not harming that youngling again."

"I find it interesting that you would risk your life for one youngling Elita," Megatron chuckled as he roughly grabbed her arm. "Have fun scout."

Megatron bawled his free hand into a fist and slammed it down on Bumblebee's head – knocking him out before ordering Starscream to leave.

* * *

><p>Elita looked at the shivering human that was sitting next to her in the brig of the <em>Nemesis<em>. The teen hadn't said a word since they had arrived and it was clear that Aly was terrified at the current situation. Of course she wasn't the only one. Elita could feel all of Optimus' worry for the two of them clearly over their bond.

_(Are you both still alright?)_

_(No one has come near us since we've arrived Optimus. Aly is still terrified though. Has Megatron contacted you about any of this?)_

_(No. Elita I have no idea what my brother is planning to do with you and Alyson. Ratchet is trying to finish the GroundBridge that he has been working on to transport us onto the Nemesis. I just hope that we will get to you both soon.)_

_(So do I. Tell Bumblebee that I am keeping her safe.)_

"Aly," Elita tried to get a response out of the girl.

"I'm sorry," Aly quietly whispered.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I should have paid better attention to what was going on so I could have avoided Starscream grabbing me or I should have listened to 'Bee and left like he wanted me too. Then they wouldn't have used me to get you as a prisoner."

"You really like to blame yourself for things, don't you?"

"No, I just feel like it is my fault."

"It isn't. You were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Perhaps you should have listened, but you decided to stay with Bumblebee instead. That was a very brave and loyal thing to do."

"You think so?" Aly looked up at Elita.

"I do," the femme nodded. "And right now, bravery is a good thing to have."

"Yeah, but unfortunately right now I'm running low on bravery."


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, and Moonraider do belong to me though.**

* * *

><p>By the time the Decepticons finally came back into the brig, Aly's fear had worn down. Sure she was still a little frightened by the situation that she and Elita were currently in, but she was also annoyed and tired of sitting in a dark, uncomfortable cell. And to make it worse, it also smelled terrible in there. So when Starscream and some other Decepticon she had never seen before walked in front of the cell, she was no longer cowering in fear, but instead glaring at the two of them. She wasn't quite sure if her lowered fear was a good thing or a bad thing. As much as she hated to admit it, her fear had probably been keeping her from saying or doing something stupid.<p>

"Ooh look it has a collar!" a crazed laugh brought Aly's attention back to the Decepticons. Okay she could have sworn that the Decepticon's face had looked different when she had first seen him.

"Silence Blitzwing," Starscream growled and Aly watched as Blitzwing's face spun around to its original appearance. "We have a job to do."

"What is it that you want Starscream?" Elita stood up, glancing down to notice Aly removing her necklace and putting it in her pocket. She felt bad for the girl, it was clear that she was sick of being referred to as a pet.

"The girl," the Seeker gestured to Aly, "will be coming with me. Blitzwing will be escorting you to Megatron. Our master has so much in store for you."

Starscream was about to grab Aly when Elita blocked her from his view. The femme's optics were narrowed as she spoke, "What do you intend to do with her?"

"That's hardly your concern anymore," Starscream smirked as he shoved Elita aside and into Blitzwing. "You really should be more worried about yourself Elita."

Starscream waited for Blitzwing to leave with Elita before walking out of the cell with Aly in his grip.

"So what are you going to do to me?"

"Experiments," he smirked. "After all it would be best for us to know what makes a human tick if we're going to rule this planet one day. Maybe if you survive we'll keep you around."

Aly felt her stomach turn at Starscream's words. Experiments? She really did not like the sound of that. Images of needles being stuck into her or her being electrocuted like Sector Seven had done with Bumblebee popped into her mind.

_Optimus, 'Bee, please hurry…_

* * *

><p>Optimus kept his optics closed as he focused on communicating with his sparkmate through their bond. As soon as Elita had told him that she was being taken to Megatron, he knew that he could not abandon her while he waited for Ratchet to finish building his GroundBridge which would be able to transport them onto the <em>Nemesis<em>. Elita had begged him not to focus so much on their bond, her reason why, the reason that Optimus could not abandon her – she was being tortured. Every infliction of pain that she received, he could feel. The Autobot leader knew that was why Elita was being tortured. Megatron was harming him through his sparkmate.

"Optimus?"

Optimus opened his optics to see Ratchet looking at him in concern. The pain he was feeling from Elita must have been showing on his face.

"What's happened?" the medic asked.

"Elita is being tortured…. Have you finished the GroundBridge yet?"

"It's almost complete; I just need to make a few tweaks. But I thought I should tell you that she's awake."

Looking over at Ratchet's medical bay, Optimus could see the Decepticon femme struggling against the bonds that kept her strapped to the berth. When they had found Bumblebee and Aly's friend Zoe at the location where Sector Seven had been keeping the youngling, they had found the femme on the ground near death. He had made the decision to bring her back to base for Ratchet to repair her in order to question her. Zoe had absolutely refused to come to the base when she saw them bringing the Decepticon, so Optimus had ordered Sideswipe to take her back to her house and to remain there for the time being. Her reaction combined with Bumblebee's explanation of what had happened at Sector Seven had made Ratchet decide that he would only repair her life-threatening injuries for the time being. Optimus could understand why Ratchet had made that decision, especially considering the venomous glare that he was currently receiving from the femme.

"Release me at once!" she snarled.

"That's not happening 'Con," Jazz shook his head. "At least not until you answer some questions from us."

"And what kind of questions would that be?" her optics narrowed.

"Who are you?"

A chuckle filled the air, "What none of the vermin you keep can tell you that?"

"Oh we got your name," Ironhide spoke up. "No one can seem to tell us anything else, other than the fact that you caused 'Bee to get captured and were trying to convince humans to capture the rest of us."

Optimus motioned for Jazz to come over to him.

"Were you able to find anything about her in the databases?"

"No, it's like she doesn't even exist in our records. And I don't think that she was able to avoid running into any Autobot on Cybertron. Someone deleted her files. It's the only way I can think of for her nonexistence to be possible."

Before Optimus could say anything else, Ratchet walked over to them.

"It's ready."

* * *

><p>How Bumblebee was able to handle guardian duty, Sideswipe had no idea. It was so boring! And to make matters worse he was being left out of a fight! He was a great fighter; he should be out there busting up some 'Cons, not babysitting. Of course maybe watching a human wouldn't be so bad, if she wasn't completely ignoring him for the past hour. He was having to keep himself occupied by coming up with new pranks – not that that was necessarily a bad thing, after all he loved pulling pranks. Well he used to anyways… pulling pranks weren't nearly as fun without Sunstreaker.<p>

"Hey how am I supposed to explain you?"

Sideswipe probably would have jumped when he heard Zoe talk if he hadn't of been in his alt-mode. He felt ashamed that he hadn't even noticed that she had come back out of her house. Of course now he could tell that she clearly did not want to be around him. Oh well, he was sure he would be able to get her to warm up to him somehow.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I'm pretty sure my mom is going to question why there's a Corvette outside our house."

"Only your mom? What your dad's not going to care?"

"My dad is in some small town in Nevada, he's not going to know about you at all."

"Why is he in Nevada?"

"Because my parents are divorced. What your planet doesn't have divorces?"

"Nope," Sideswipe said, activating his holoform so Zoe could actually see his confusion about what she was talking about. "What are they?"

"Can't you just look it up," Zoe asked as she sat down on Sideswipe's hood next to his holoform.

"I could, but I don't want to. So why don't you just tell me."

"A divorce is basically when two people who are married decided that they don't want to be together anymore. They don't love each other anymore; things just weren't working out… that kind of stuff."

"Ah, things aren't really like that with Cybertronians. Spark bonds would make a divorce kind of difficult."

"Why's that?"

"Well spark bonds connect us. Sparkmates and families can feel each other's pain and emotions. We have a piece of each other in our sparks. I mean some bonds aren't as strong as others. Optimus and Megatron are brothers, and Megs would love to kill him. But sparkmates and twins have the strongest bonds out there."

Zoe was quiet for a few minutes after Sideswipe had finished talking, mulling over what she had just learned. From the sounds of things, the robo – the Cybertronians were a lot closer, at least where family was concerned for the most part, to each other than humans were. She had gotten over her parent's divorce, but there would always be a part of her that would wish that it had never happened.

"That sounds really nice," she said softly.

"It has its down sides," Sideswipe muttered in reply.

Zoe waited for him to elaborate.

"Twin bonds are really strong," he hesitated. "If one twin dies, so does the other. They literally share a spark. Long periods of separation can strain the bond, and if it gets too strained, it can kill them."

"Yikes, sounds like you know some twins," Zoe twirled a strand of her hair around her finger.

"I am one."

"Oh… where is your twin at?"

"I wish I knew…"

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's not like you knew," Sideswipe's holoform shrugged. "Hey why is part of your hair blue?"

"I don't know; I wanted it to be blue. I like to think that it makes me unique. Hey is it possible that your twin could have already arrived on Earth?"

"I would know if Sunstreaker were here. He would have come directly to Optimus or at least have contacted him and the others."

"Moonraider said that Sector Seven had two other Cybertronians, well she said NBEs, but I'm assuming that they're Cybertronian. Anyway, she said that they weren't getting anything out of them because they were either deactivated or in stasis lock, whatever that is, so I just sort of thought that maybe Sunstreaker could be one of those."

Sideswipe was speechless for a moment, but he eventually was able to find his voice.

"You mean to tell me, that Sunny could be here… on Earth… locked up in some government lab… in stasis lock while our bond continues to be strained."

"Umm, maybe?"

"I'm not sure that's possible, but I guess I could ask Ratchet about it… Have you ever pulled a prank before?"

Noticing that this was the second time that Sideswipe had tried to change the subject, she got the hint that he didn't want to talk about his missing twin anymore. She would drop it for now. After all, she was sure that it would come again some other time.

"I've pulled one once or twice. I've never been that good with pranks."

"Well I, being the master of pranking, am going to have to fix that."

: Sideswipe, come in. :

: What is it Ratch? :

: The Decepticon escaped. I'm sending you GroundBridge coordinates that she used. I need you to try to track her down. :

: Can't you do it? :

: I need to operate the GroundBridge for Optimus and the others once they have found Elita and Aly. You are the only one at the moment, who is capable of going to recapture her. :

"Looks like the teaching of pranks will have to wait. The 'Con got away, so I have to go find her."

"What!? How?"

"She's either that good, Ratchet made a mistake, or both. I wouldn't worry about her though, she went nowhere near here and she's probably too damaged to get anywhere close to you. You'll be safe here."

"Well that's good to know."

"I'll be back later. And if your mom ends up asking why a Corvette pulls up, just tell her that I'm new in town and you're showing me around."


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. All of the OCs in this belong to me.**

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><p>Moonraider trudged through the trees and bushes of the woods, getting frustrated as some of the limbs got stuck in her armor. She hated this – being on the run from everyone. Both factions hated her and now she had to resort to being a rouge for possibly the rest of her life. Which felt like wouldn't be long. Her wounds from earlier still hadn't healed all the way and were giving her pain. Add in the fact that she was running low on energon, as the warnings she was receiving kept reminding her, and finding more was going to be a bit of a challenge, the femme's future looked rather bleak. Carefully she leaned against one of the trees to allow herself a moment of rest.<p>

"Slaggin' Starscream!" she hissed as one of her damaged door wings brushed against the trunk of the tree.

Why did he have to go and damage her door wing? And of all of the places the Autobots' medic could have ignored when he had patched her up, it had to be that. Would it have killed him to have repaired her wing before she had escaped? Their youngling had door wings; didn't they know how sensitive the appendages could be when they were damaged? She brushed the thoughts aside and forced herself to get back up. Moonraider wasn't sure if anyone was looking for her – the Autobots to take her back as prisoner or the Decepticons to finish her off – but in her current state, she didn't want to take any risks.

She had only managed to walk a short distance when one of her legs gave out on her and she started to collapse to the ground. Before she could hit the dirt and grass below her though, she felt someone grab her from behind.

"Don't worry Moony, I got you."

"F-Forest?" she managed to whisper before blissful stasis claimed her.

* * *

><p>Forest looked at the femme in his arms with a strange mixture of happiness and sadness. Happiness that after all this time that he had finally found her, even though he certainly hadn't expected to see her on this planet, but sadness at her current state. She looked so broken… and that wasn't the way his Moonraider should look. She should look more lively – her armor cleaner and her violet optics brighter with a kindness to them that only he could see. Gently he lifted one of his servos to gently caress her face before removing the shattered remains of her visor.<p>

Now he wasn't sure what to do. He was no medic, but he could tell that most of the wounds that she had were superficial, though that didn't make them any less painful. She was also low on energon, which was most likely the reason she had fallen into stasis. It was clear to him that the best thing would be to have a medic tend to her, but that presented a big problem to him. He wouldn't take her to the Autobots without her permission. He knew that would most likely result in her being held as a prisoner for quite a while, which could possibly prevent him from getting to spend time with her. Plus he didn't know how she had gotten injured in the first place, and whether she was a Decepticon or not, he was not going to let a Decepticon medic touch her beautiful frame, even in its current state.

A quick scan of the area told him that there was a nearby cave. He could stay with her there until she woke up and then he could ask her what had happened and if he could take her to a medic. He was careful as he carried her to the cave, taking caution as to not accidently touch one of her wounds. Once inside, he sat on the ground and plucked the twigs from her armor. Forest knew that Moonraider most likely wouldn't be too pleased with the fact that she was being held when she woke up, but he wasn't going to let go of her. She had already left his life once, and he was going to make sure that he never lost her again.

* * *

><p>The first thought that crossed Moonraider's mind when she groggily woke from stasis was that she was dead. She had to be, it was the only way any of this made sense to her. Forest was holding her, but Forest should have been dead by now. It had been something that she had convinced herself long ago. But then she realized that she wasn't dead. If she was dead, she was doubtful she would have been rewarded with Forest being with her. So she was alive and so was Forest. The part of her that had convinced her that he was a weakness and that she couldn't afford to keep him around, told her to push him away. But the small part of her, that no matter how much she tried still cared for Forest, told her to savor the moment.<p>

_After all, he'll probably hate you just like everyone else once he finds out what you've done_, the voice taunted. For some reason, Moonraider was terrified that the voice would end up being right.

"You need some energon," Forest's concerned voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"I'm fine," she lied, though her weak, rough voice betrayed her.

Forest put a small cube of energon into her line of sight, "I had this with me and you need it a lot more than I do. Come on Moony, please take it."

She hesitated, but eventually took it from him. She was on her own now; she really couldn't afford to pass up any energon that came her way. After she finished it, she couldn't deny how much better she felt now that she had something to give her a little more energy.

"Now do you want to tell me what happened?" Forest asked. When Moonraider remained silent he got the hint that she wasn't ready to discuss it. "That's okay, you can tell me later. I'm a pretty patient mech."

"You can't stay here," Moonraider finally spoke.

"What?"

"You can't stay here. If any Decepticon finds me, they'll kill us both."

"You need to see a medic."

"I already have. Unfortunately he didn't fully repair me before I escaped."

"You were captured?"

Well that settled that. There was no way he would be able to convince her to see whatever Autobot medic was on Earth now. He also realized that she did have a point about him not being able to stay. For whatever reason she didn't want the Decepticons to find her, if they did and he was with her, things would most likely be worse for her. And if the Autobots came searching for him and found him with her, Moonraider would most likely be taken back as prisoner. And he knew that she would not like that. But he wasn't willing to leave her unless he knew that he would be able to find her again.

"Are you going to stay here?" he asked.

"Maybe for a while," Moonraider replied rather quietly.

"Will you stay here until I come back?"

Moonraider turned and looked at him in surprise.

"You're going to need more energon," Forest pointed out. "I could probably bring you some and try to get your visor fixed too. Plus I want to get to see you more. It's been so long…"

It had been long, Moonraider could not deny that. But time had a way of changing them. Maybe not Forest, he seemed the same to her as he did the last time she had seen him, but she certainly had changed. Whether it was for the best or for the worst depended. A part of her was screaming that she couldn't let herself become close to Forest again, while the other was urging her… begging her to let him back into her life. She hated the conflicting feelings that were flowing inside of her and it was beginning to exhaust her.

"I'll be here," she sighed, allowing him to wrap his arms around her tighter for a moment before letting her go and getting up.

"I'll be back soon," he promised. When he arrived at the entrance to the cave he paused for a moment. "I still love you Moony, I hope you know that."

He left before Moonraider was able to respond. She could feel emotions that she had kept buried stirring inside of her at his words and she quickly struggled to push them back down. Of course Forest still loved her. He didn't know what all had recently happened with her and once he joined up with the other Autobots, they would tell him. He may have still loved her now, but she was doubtful that he would after that. If anything, Forest was a loyal Autobot, and it was that trait that had frustrated her to the core. If only he hadn't of been so loyal or if only he had been a Decepticon… maybe then things wouldn't have been so impossible for them. At one time she had held out hope that the war would end and they would be able to be together, but she had soon realized that even then it would have been difficult. There would always be those who would ridicule them for being with someone that had been on the opposite side.

Once again she had to push those thoughts out of her mind. She needed a distraction, something to keep her from thinking of that. Moonraider never cared much for human culture, she still didn't in fact, but at the moment their world wide web was the only distraction she would be able to find. Not much of it interested her at first, but then a piece of human literature caught her attention and she began to read it.

To say that she was disappointed with the ending would be an understatement. Why couldn't the human known as William Shakespeare have given Romeo and Juliet a better ending? Her reaction surprised her at first, but then she realized that she had placed herself and Forest in the roles of the characters. She could see why she had done it, after all she and Forest were technically forbidden to be together too. Though neither of them were quiet as foolish as Romeo and Juliet had been.

She had been a youngling, probably around the same age as the Autobot scout, when she had first met Forest. It had been one of her first infiltration jobs and things had been going much better then she had anticipated. One of the Autobots, Forest, trusted her enough to show her every inch of the base. But then something had ended up happening and against her better judgment, she had started to fall for him. And then Forest had discovered that she was a Decepticon spy. She had expected that he would hate her and turn her over. He surprised her by not turning her over, but helping her leave. As loyal as he was to the Autobot cause, he had cared enough about her to break the rules.

That was part of the reason she had acted the way she had before. After she had realized how impossible it would be for her and Forest to be together, she had also come to the conclusion that this wasn't their war – it was Megatron's and Optimus Prime's war. They were the ones that had initiated it and they were the ones that had all of them pitted against each other. And most importantly of all, they were the ones who made it impossible for her to be with Forest. Of course defecting had always been an option, but was an option that Moonraider never would have considered. Forest would never have joined the Decepticons, and she could never join the Autobots. It wouldn't have mattered if she had cared about their ideals, joining them would have been a death sentence – not only to her, but to Forest as well. By not defecting, she had been keeping Forest safe… even if it meant that they wouldn't be together.

Moonraider felt a stab of annoyance at herself. She had gone so long without even having a thought about Forest. Sure he may have been the driving force behind her actions, something that would no doubt disappoint him, but she had kept him blocked from her mind. But now that she had seen him and knew that he was alive, all of her thoughts and feelings towards him had returned full force. For so long she had convince herself that relationships were a weakness and that she would never fall for it again, but now a part of her was dying to be with Forest. But maybe that wasn't such a bad thing anymore. She was alone now… maybe having someone would still be nice. As long as he still cared for her once he returned that is.

There was no denying the fact that she loved Forest. No matter how much she wanted to convince herself otherwise, it was impossible. Moonraider let out a sigh, closed her optics, and tried to drift off into recharge. Maybe the conflicting feelings she had would be gone when she woke up.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. The OCs in this story belong to me.**

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter.**

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><p>Pain radiating throughout her entire body was all that Elita could feel. Megatron's torture to her kept alternating to different things. At one point she would be stabbed with a blade and then at another point she would have electricity coursing through her frame. It was painful and disorienting, and it unfortunately kept her from being prepared for what would come. To make matters worse, as the torture went on she found herself focusing more and more on her bond with Optimus to try to escape the pain. It did help her a little, but Elita knew that it also allowed Optimus to feel her pain worse than he already could.<p>

_(I am coming Elita. It will be over soon. )_ Optimus assured her over their bond. _(Continue to focus on me.)_

_(No, you don't need to feel this anymore than you have to.)_

_(And you do not need to face this by yourself. How badly are you damaged?)_

_(I'm not sure. I know I'm losing energon, but I don't know how much I'm losing or what else is damaged. I'm not getting any reports… Optimus it feels like the pain is getting worse though.)_

_(Then I will not leave you. Focus on me and do not think about what is going on.)_

_(Do you remember when you first brought Bumblebee to the base?)_

_(Of course, the moment I stepped inside holding a tiny, crying sparkling you rushed over and took him from me.)_

_(He was scared and hungry, I felt like I needed to help him. So I grabbed some energon and started to feed him. While I was doing that he snuggled close to my spark and I decided that I would protect and care for him.)_

_(You wouldn't put him down for orns. When I went to our room a while after I brought him to the base, you both were in recharge with him cradled in your arms.)_

_(I seem to recall when I woke up we were both cradled in your arms.)_

_(I could feel how happy he was making you and wanted to have you both close.)_

If she hadn't been searing with pain, Elita would have smiled at the memory. The feeling of a sparkling snuggled up close to her had been so wonderful. She and Optimus had tried to have a sparkling before, but it had never happened. When her sparkmate had found Bumblebee, she had felt like she would finally have a chance at being a mother and she hadn't been willing to give it up. That was why she had allowed herself to get captured if it meant he wouldn't be receiving any more harm from Megatron – she would not have a repeat of last time. Suddenly an alarm went off, causing Megatron to growl in anger and stab her with his blade again. Elita gasped in pain, unable to hold it back any longer.

"It appears my brother found a way to come for you sooner than I had anticipated."

Elita remained silent and offlined her optics to try to conserve her energy. She was getting tired, but she knew that she could not allow herself to fall into recharge or into stasis until Optimus found her and they made it back to the base.

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><p>The sound of alarms told Optimus that their presence aboard the Decepticons' ship had not gone unnoticed. The Autobot leader knew that they were going to have to hurry if they were going to be able to get to Elita and Aly and be able to get them off of the ship before the Decepticons could do anything drastic. He knew that he would be able to find Elita – their bond would lead him to her. Aly on the other hand, would not be as easy to find. She could be anywhere on the ship, and it seemed that splitting up would be the only way to find her.<p>

"Jazz, go locate the bridge and check to see if Alyson is there. Bumblebee, Ironhide, you will search the rest of the ship for her. I will go get Elita."

Almost instantly Bumblebee took off in search of his human friend. Optimus was sure that the scout would be able to locate her. Of course what worried him is what the youngling would do once he had found her. There was no doubt in the Autobot leader's mind that Bumblebee would do whatever he could to save Aly, even if it meant harm befalling him.

"You're going alone?" Ironhide questioned.

"Yes. I know where she is at and I will be able to find her. I need you to help Bumblebee find Alyson and try to keep him from getting in over his head."

Ironhide nodded before walking off in the direction where Bumblebee had run off. Once the others had left for their search, Optimus headed in the direction where his spark was telling him he would find his sparkmate. He just hoped that he would be able to get to her and get her off of the _Nemesis _before Megatron or any of the other Decepticons could do anything else to her.

Only a short while later did Optimus walk into the room where Elita was strapped down to an interrogation table. Energon was leaking from her pink frame and her optics were closed. A mere few feet away from her stood Megatron – a satisfied smirk on his face. Optimus could tell that his brother had been looking forward to his arrival. And now he faced a dilemma. Megatron would not simply let them walk away, he would want a fight. But in Elita's current state, he was not certain how long she could hold on. He needed to get her off of the _Nemesis _as soon as possible so she could receive much needed repairs. The only question was how would he do that?

"Megatron, release Elita at once. Our quarrel has nothing to do with her." Optimus had extreme doubt that even attempting to reason with Megatron would work, but he needed to do something to ensure his sparkmate's freedom.

"Oh I disagree Optimus. It seems that I now possess the perfect leverage over you," Megatron stated as he unsheathed his blade and hovered it over Elita's spark chamber. "With one fatal blow to her, I could deliver more pain to you than if I even fought you myself. I find myself in a very enjoyable position. One more blow and I can finally watch you crumble."

Megatron started to raise his blade to deliver his final blow.

Everything appeared to be in slow motion for Optimus as the blade started to fall towards Elita.

"No!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. I do, however, own Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, Moonraider, and Forest.**

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><p>Acting on pure instinct Optimus lunged towards Megatron right as his blade pierced Elita's armor. He heard his sparkmate let out a pained gasp and he himself could feel the pain. What worried him the most though, was how excruciating it felt. Surely his brother's blade had not actually pierced her spark. That thought terrified Optimus to the core. He could not lose Elita. He wasn't sure how he would be able to live, knowing that he had failed to save her... or that she had been killed simply to harm him. Optimus knew at that moment that it was extremely important to get a hold of Elita and have Ratchet GroundBridge them back to base, so she could receive medical treatment. With that in mind, Optimus used Megatron's moment of destraction to shove his brother as far away from him as possible, before rushing to Elita and ripping the bonds off of her.<p>

"O-Optimus," Elita managed to painfully whisper.

"Shh, I will get you out of here Elita and Ratchet will repair you. You will be alright," he replied gently picking her up right as Megatron rushed towards him.

Optimus quickly moved out of the way, unfortunately jostling Elita in the process causing her more pain, which he had hoped to avoid. Quickly the Autobot leader fired at the Decepticon, hoping that he would be able to stun him long enough to get out of the room. Fortunately for him, his blast was able to knock Megatron back into the wall – giving him the perfect opportunity to rush out of the room with Elita.

"Ratchet, I require a GroundBridge immediately," Optimus spoke through the comm. while he kept his optics looked onto his suffering, and possibly dying, sparkmate. "And prepare the medical bay for Elita."

"W-what a-about the o-others?" Elita managed to get out. "C-can't leave t-them..."

"Ironhide, Jazz, and Bumblebee will get Alyson. They will be alright. Right now my primary concern is getting you to safety and medical attention."

At that moment the GroundBridge opened and Optimus hurried through it. For a moment, he wondered why Megatron had not come after them. Had his brother assumed that he would not be able to get Elita help in time? That did not seem right and he began to wonder if the Decepticon leader had went after the others. He did not get to dwell on the thought however, for as he stepped inside of the base – his concern returned to his sparkmate. As soon as he was certain that she would be alright, he would go help the others if they required his assistance. He hated the thought of leaving Elita while she was hurt so badly.

"Where is she hurt the worst?" Ratchet asked as Optimus placed the pink femme down on a medical berth.

"Megatron stabbed her near her spark. I do not know if he pierced it or not... I believe he was close to it though. I can feel how much pain it is causing her."

After hooking her up to several monitors, so he could keep a watch over her vitals, the medic removed Elita's chest armor to get a closer look at her spark. Ratchet knew that Optimus was hovering nearby, and if it had been anyone else, Ratchet would have normally kicked him out of the med bay. But there was a mutual understanding between medics, sparkmates, and twins. If there was a potential life-threatening injury for one, the other would be allowed to stay as long as they did not interfere with any work going on – and Ratchet knew that Optimus would not interfere with anything unless he asked him too. After a closer inspection, the medic was able to see that fortunately Megatron had not completely pierced Elita's spark. He had assumed that would be the case since the femme was still online, but it was still good to have it confirmed. However, even though the spark was not pierced, he could see a cut running across it.

"Did you knock Megatron away right as his arm blade entered her?" Ratchet questioned.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"When you did that, you prevented Megatron from immediately killing her by letting him completely stab her, but he was still able to cut it – which is not a good thing. There is little I can do to keep it stabilized, so that is going to be up to you after I patch up the rest of her wounds," Ratchet explained before turning his attention to Elita. "Elita, I am going to put you into medical stasis while I work on you, alright?"

The femme managed a weak nod, before Ratchet put her under.

"What do you mean, that is is up to me to keep her spark stabilized?" Optimus asked once Elita was in stasis. "What will I have to do?"

"Optimus, the cut on her spark is irreversible," Ratchet said as he worked. "There is literally nothing I can do to fix it, and it will cause her problems. Anything too strenuous or stressful could give her a spark attack, which could end up offlining her. I believe she will have to stay off of active duty and out of any battles. As her sparkmate, her spark is connected to yours. If her spark needs to be stabilized to keep it steady the best thing to do is to have you merge your spark with hers for a little while."

* * *

><p>A short while later, Optimus was laying on the medical berth with Elita in his arms. Ratchet had finished patching up her wounds and Optimus had stabilized her spark for the time being. Ratchet had hooked her up to a machine that would pump energon in her to replace the energon she had lost. Already she was out of her medical stasis, and didn't seem quite as weak as she had before, though she was more lethargic than usual. They were currently waiting to hear something from the others about whether or not they had been able to get to Aly.<p>

"I am sorry, I did not get to you sooner Elita."

"No, I don't want to hear any apologies nor do I want to hear you blaming yourself. It wasn't your fault and I don't want to hear you saying so."

"Elita, you were badly injured because I did not get to you sooner."

"I would have been injured no matter when you got there. Megatron was waiting for you to arrive – you stopped him from killing me, that's what should matter to you."

"This injury will not leave you, Elita. You realize that you will have to remain off of active duty."

"I know," the femme replied quietly, "but I will find some way to keep myself occupied. Besides I will still be able to go out some. I'll survive, and I hope you remember that."

Optimus remained silent. He certainly had not expected that Elita would take her new disability so well. He was sure that there would be times later on, when it would bother her much more than it did at the moment. Having to stay behind and wonder what was happening to them in battles, he knew that she would not be able to stand it. But he supposed that they would have to deal with that later on when they crossed that bridge. For the meanwhile he knew that he would try his best to honor her wish of not blaming himself. It would not be easy, that much he was certain of. Every time he saw that that she was letting her disability bother her or he saw the effects of it, he would be reminded of the fact of what happened.

"Optimus, perhaps you should go back and help the others," Elita suggested. "I know that you do not want to leave me, but right now I believe they need you more."

"I have already contacted them and told them of your condition. Ironhide and Jazz both said that they could handle things on the _Nemesis_, and if they do need me, they will contact me."

"That may be the case, but I would feel better if I knew that you were there to make sure no one else gets captured and tortured."

"Elita..."

The femme leaned up and gave her sparkmate a kiss, "Go. I'll just recharge while you're gone. And please make sure to tell Bumblebee and Aly to not blame themselves either – Aly was already blaming herself for us getting captured and we raised Bumblebee, and unfortunately he takes after you with some things."

"Very well, I will go and help the others if that is what you want."

"It is. Now don't worry, I'll be fine and perhaps by the time you get back, Ratchet will believe that I can leave the med bay," Elita said glancing over at the medic.

Ratchet quickly replied, "You're staying in here for the rest of the Earth day and night. If everything appears to be fine tomorrow, you can move back to yours and Optimus' room."

Optimus had to hide a smile at the scowl on Elita's face.

"I will stay in here with you once I return," he promised, earning a small smile from Elita.

"I know you will. Now go, so you can get back here soon with the others."

The Autobot leader nodded for Ratchet to reopen the GroundBridge for him. He hoped that he would be able to catch up with the others before an inevitable skirmish broke out. Optimus did not like the idea of a human being caught in the middle of a fight like that. He knew that Bumblebee would protect the girl with his life, but he would rather the youngling not get badly injured himself in attempting to keep her safe. If it was possible, he was going to make sure that those two would be the first to be extracted from the Decepticon ship. He, Ironhide, and Jazz would most likely be able to hold any Decepticons off to allow them to escape, before getting off themselves.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters that appear in the cartoons, movies, comics, etc. I do own Aly Rose, Zoe Smith, Moonraider, and Forest though. **

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><p>Partnerships were not uncommon amongst the Decepticon ranks. That being said, it was rare that the partnerships would form genuine friendships. Many only used them as means to an end, while others simply didn't want to be put in a position where they could be compromised or viewed as a weakness. In the, as the humans would say, dog eat dog world of the Decepticons, weakness was not a valuable asset. And the fact that they lived in that kind of conditions, was precisely why Knockout loved his position as CMO of the Decepticon army. It wasn't exactly a position that was sought after by others, and even if it was, few wanted to get on the bad side of the one Decepticon that would be in charge of patching them up and even fewer would want to take the risk of having to face the doctor's medical assistant.<p>

Breakdown was not the type that one would expect to be working in a medical bay. In fact, one would expect that the brute would be out on the front lines – which he actually was, most of the time. But Knockout and Breakdown had formed a friendship a long time ago, and the two simply worked well together. Plus Knockout couldn't deny the fact that it was good to have someone watching his back whenever he was sent out to participate in battles. After all, it meant that his finish was less likely to get ruined.

Though Knockout knew that the day that their partnership proved to be less than useful, they would no longer be permitted to work with each other. It was one of the many downfalls of being an officer under Lord Megatron's command. Knockout rarely considered the possibility of that ever happening though. The few times Breakdown had attempted to bring it up, Knockout had simply waved him off.

He wasn't going to consider it, because it simply wasn't going to happen.

"So what is Starscream doing with the human now?" Knockout questioned his partner as he tried to tune out the sound of alarms going off.

"Still talking."

Most of the time, Knockout enjoyed the fact that Megatron had forced Starscream's lab to be placed inside of the medical bay. It occasionally provided entertainment whenever he and Breakdown were unable to get off of the ship. But right now, Knockout despised it. They were going to be the ones who were forced to face the Autobots first, all because Starscream had taken their human and went into his lab with her. And to make matters worse, they had been ordered to remain in there. Knockout had been tempted to tell Starscream where he could put those orders, but had thought better of it.

"Still? He's forcing us to have to defend him from the Autobots, just so he can talk to the human?"

"You know you can leave if you want KO."

"And let Starscream try to ruin my finish when he finds out. No thank you. I'll just make a strategic retreat once the Autobots show up, which shouldn't be much longer. And then you can let the Autobots take care of Starscream. They're his problem anyways."

"You might want to keep that down. Commander Starscream will throw a fit if he hears you saying that you're just going to let the Autobots get to him."

"If anyone should be throwing a fit, it's me. He's the one leading the Autobots straight into _my _medical bay."

Breakdown chose to drop the subject, knowing that if it continued the chances of Starscream hearing them increased. The last thing they needed was to have one of their commanding officers mad at them.

The sound of blasters going off in the near distance was enough for the two Decepticons to know that the Autobots were almost there. Breakdown transformed his arm into a hammer and Knockout grabbed his staff. The medic was very fond of his weapon. It was modeled after an energon prod, but a tad more potent. All he had to do was hit a Cybertronian in the right spot, and it would be lights out for them. And even if it didn't knock them out, the burst of electricity proved to be an excellent distraction to get away.

It was only a few moments later that the doors to the med bay blasted open, revealing the Autobots' Weapons Specialist and their scout. Almost instantly did the scout bolt towards the door to Starscream's lab. Knockout didn't even bother to stop him. Surely Starscream could handle one measly Autobot scout. He turned his attention to the fight going on between Breakdown and Ironhide, casually twirling the staff in his hand.

Help or flee.

Truthfully Breakdown probably could handle the Autobot on his own, granted it would not necessarily be easy. Even if Breakdown couldn't take down the Autobot, the brute was smart enough to know when to retreat. Of course two against one put the odds more in their favor, but it put himself at risk. Knockout was currently the only medic on board the _Nemesis, _something that he viewed as a major inconvenience.

If he was forced into a battle and was critically injured, there would be no one to repair him. Breakdown only knew how to do so much, and if he was injured as well they were all doomed. It was that very reason that he tended to stay away from the fighting – not only to protect himself, but to ensure that someone would still be around to patch everyone else up afterward. Which was why he was having to internally debate whether or not he should help Breakdown. If it had been any other Decepticon, the choice would have been obvious, but Breakdown was his friend, so more consideration had to be put into it.

Attacking Ironhide would not prove to be an easy task, considering the fact that Knockout would have to get behind Ironhide and the Weapons Specialist was more or less facing him at the moment, with Breakdown being the only thing that could block his view. It was entirely likely the moment that he made a move closer to the fight, he would be shot at, depending on whether or not the Autobot had an easy target.

At the moment, Breakdown was positioned just to where Ironhide wouldn't have a good view of Knockout. If he was going to try to attack at all, this would be the perfect opportunity. Making his decision, the medic moved closer – only for Ironhide to notice and fire at him. Fortunately for Knockout, the shot missed him, albeit barely. His staff on the other hand, hadn't end up quite as lucky. Part of it snapped off and he heard a small yelp from behind him. Turning around he saw that the scout had managed to open up the door to Starscream's lab and that his broken piece of staff had ended up landing right next to the human.

Hmm, he was going to have to invest in a sturdier metal for his staff. He certainly didn't need it breaking apart and unintentionally arming humans with it. With that in mind, making a retreat was sounding like a much better plan for him now. While he did have other weapons other than his staff, all of them would require him to actually get close to Ironhide. That clearly was not going to happen – not without his paint getting ruined, or getting injured in the process. Add in the fact that the end of his staff that had landed next to the human was still functionable, and therefore she could potentially use it to help the scout fight Starscream, getting out of there seemed to be his best option.

The red mech transformed into his vehicle mode and speed of the room.

"Breakdown, I'm making my exit. Let me know when you're finished with the Autobots."

Knockout was sure that he would be reprimanded later, no doubt by Starscream, for this, but at the moment he simply couldn't bring himself to care.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. My OCs do belong to me though.**

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><p>Aly wasn't really sure what she had expected when Starscream brought her into his lab, but it certainly wasn't this. She had thought that maybe something painful would be happening to her, and maybe if the alarms hadn't started going off the moment Starscream stepped inside his lab, it would be. But nope, that wasn't happening at all now. He was just talking. True, he was mostly just insulting her and while she hated that with a passion and could think of several things she could say back to him, she was remaining silent. Bumblebee or one of the Autobots would come get her soon, she just needed to make sure she didn't do anything that would get herself killed in the meantime.<p>

"It's sad really. The Autobots think that by keeping you around, they're protecting you, when really, we probably never would have bothered you again if they hadn't kept you as a pet."

"I'm not a pet!"

How many times did she have to say that before it got through the Decepticons' heads? Just because she wasn't a Cybertronian and she hung out with the Autobots did not make her a pet. Of course she probably shouldn't expect that the faction that wanted to take over her planet would consider her to be anything else.

"It's even more pathetic how attached they are to you. Willing to get captured just so you would live. Do you want to know why we used you as bait, girl? Because you're such an easy target. You can't defend yourself against us. The Autobots are just one misstep away from killing you themselves. Humans are such a pathetic, fragile species."

"Humans are tougher than you think."

It wasn't her best comeback, but it was the only thing she could think to say that wouldn't possibly get herself killed.

'_Just keep your mouth shut until help gets here,' _she silently chanted.

"Oh, I'm sure that some are. You just aren't amongst them," Starscream smirked. "You're not even useful to the Autobots."

"You don't know that."

"Really? What advantage do you give them?"

"Well I tell them stuff about Earth..."

Starscream laughed in amusement at that. Aly knew that truthfully that wasn't the most useful thing to help the Autobots, but really what else could she do? She couldn't help them fight the 'Cons, no matter how much she wished that she could. All she could do is tell them about Earth and maybe now help keep Sector Seven away from them.

"You tell them about Earth," Starscream mocked. "I look forward to when your precious Autobots show up. I'm going to show them what a waste it was keeping you around."

Panic coursed through her as she glanced towards the door to Starscream's lab. He had to be bluffing. He wasn't going to kill her as soon as the 'Bots showed up. Aly was hating this more every second. She couldn't let Starscream have the satisfaction of killing her. The table she was on was high up, but maybe she would be able to jump off of it without getting hurt too bad and then one of the Autobots could grab her and they could leave.

Suddenly the door to the lab opened up and an object came flying towards her, causing Aly to let out a startled yelp. She breathed a sigh of relief when whatever it was didn't hit her and instead just landed next to her. Looking at it, she still wasn't sure what it was. Some type of Cybertronian weapon obviously, but she wasn't quite sure how it was used or how it had winded up flying into the room.

"Aly!"

The sound of Bumblebee's voice was a relief until the human teen noticed that Starscream was aiming his weapon at the Autobot. The scout dodged out of the way when the first shot was fired. Then he dodged another, and another after that. He was getting further away from her. It took Aly a few moments to realize it, but Starscream was forcing Bumblebee towards the other side of the room – not near her at all. She had to do something.

Aly glanced back at the weapon that had landed beside of her. It looked like it would still work – granted she still wasn't sure how it worked. Maybe the user was supposed to use the glowing end to hit someone? She wasn't sure if it would work, but at the very least maybe she could distract Starscream momentarily.

Picking it up, she walked as close to the edge of the table as she dared and shoved the glowing end towards Starscream's back. It barely reached him, but the hiss of pain that came out of the Seeker was enough for her to know that she at least somewhat succeed in hitting him. And she succeeded in ticking him off as the enraged look that she received from the Decepticon showed her.

The next thing Aly knew was that she was in Bumblebee's hand right as Starscream's talons came down and scraped against the scout's arm.

That had been meant for her. If Bumblebee hadn't of gotten to her when he had, she was doubtful that she would still be alive – especially since Bumblebee had a small wince on his face as he moved away from Starscream.

"Are you okay?" Bumblebee asked as he shielded her to his chest.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"It's just a scratch. I'll be fine."

"You're going to be leaving here with more than a scratch Autobot!" Starscream snarled.

Bumblebee glanced back at the door to the lab. He needed to get himself and Aly out of there as soon as possible. The scout knew that he was out skilled in this fight. Starscream had been fighting in the war a lot longer than he had been, and the Seeker had a larger height than he did too. Even without having to protect Aly, it would be hard to get out without getting too injured. He wondered what the odds of him making it out the door without getting shot at were. He had to try.

"I don't think so Autobot!" Starscream grabbed a hold of one of Bumblebee's door wings and pulled him back.

Slag. He had forgotten how easy of a target his door wings could be. Bumblebee knew he should have remembered that, especially after having seen the fight between Starscream and the Decepticon femme earlier. Flyer wings were similar to door wings in the fact that both were sensitive appendages and it hurt a lot whenever they were damaged. They were also very easy to get a hold of in a fight if you weren't careful, as Starscream had just displayed.

Starscream gave a hard tug on the wing, and Bumblebee had to keep himself from crying out in pain. It felt like the Seeker was trying to tear the wing straight off. That probably was what Starscream was trying to do. Bumblebee tried to remind himself that it was just a wing. It would hurt like slag if it was torn off, but he would survive. He just needed to get Aly off of the _Nemesis. _

"Did you really think it would be that easy to get away youngling? I'm not finished yet."

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><p>Jazz had made sure to contact Ironhide the moment he discovered that their human ally wasn't in the ship's brig. He got a brisk reply from the Weapons Specialist that they were in the medical bay of the ship and that he should get over there now and help Bumblebee. As such, the silver mech didn't hesitate and rushed towards the medical bay. He wasn't even half way there when he ran into Optimus.<p>

"Where's Elita?"

"I have already taken her back to base. Have the others had luck in locating Alyson?"

"'Hide said that they're in the med bay and wants me to get down there to help out 'Bee."

"Is he in trouble?"

"No clue."

No other words were spoken as the two hurried to find Ironhide and Bumblebee.

They arrived right as Ironhide was finishing his fight with Breakdown. The blue mech was running out of the room, clearly injured, right as they were getting ready to enter it.

"Ironhide, are you alright?" Optimus questioned.

"I'm fine Prime. Just a few dents."

"Where is Bumblebee?"

"In that room over there. I would have thought that he would be out by now, but he's still in there. That's why I told Jazz to get down here. I was busy with Breakdown and I needed someone to check on him."

The silver mech made his way over to the door with Ironhide and Optimus close behind. When they walked inside of the room, they saw Bumblebee struggling to get away from Starscream. The Seeker had a hold of both of the youngling's door wings. Immediately all three Autobots brought out their weapons and trained them on Starscream. Bumblebee looked at them in relief and made one last attempt at breaking free to get over to them, only to let out a hiss of pain when Starscream didn't let go of his door wings and he felt them starting to tear.

"'Bee?" Aly whispered, still hidden by Bumblebee's hand. Not being able to see anything that was going on, she was beginning to get worried about her friend. Starscream was keeping him from leaving, that much was obvious, but whatever he was doing also seemed to be hurting him and Aly was starting to get worried.

"Starscream release Bumblebee at once."

The sound of Optimus' voice filled Aly with relief. The others were here and they would be able to get Bumblebee and herself out of there.

Starscream weighed his options. If he let the Autobot and human go, no doubt he would have to face Megatron's wrath. On the other hand if he refused to let them go, the Autobots were sure to fire upon him and then he would still have to face Megatron only he would already be damaged when he did. The choice that gave him the best chance at survival was unfortunately obvious. Roughly he pushed the scout towards the other Autobots, causing the youngling to stumble and almost fall before Optimus Prime helped him regain his balance. The Autobot leader led the youngling out of the room, leaving Jazz and Ironhide with their weapons still trained on Starscream.

"I gave you your scout back, there's no need for threats," he raised his arms up in surrender, nodding towards their weapons.

"Think we can trust him to stay in here while we leave?" Jazz questioned Ironhide.

"No." Ironhide watched as Starscream started to back away from him, trying to hide himself further in his lab. "But we don't have much of a choice. Lets go."

The two walked out of the lab, making sure that the door closed behind them.

"You alright 'Bee?" Jazz asked.

The youngling gave a small nod, "I'll be fine. My door wings just hurt a lot."

"You are leaking energon from where they were being torn off," Optimus said as he took a good look at the youngling's wounds.

"I'll be fine," Bumblebee replied as he placed Aly onto his shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile when he noticed the concerned look on her face. "You still okay?"

"I'm fine. You got to me before Starscream could hurt me." Aly noticed a swirling green portal opening up near them. "Umm, what's that?"

"A GroundBridge, it's how we're getting home," Bumblebee explained.

"It's safe for humans to go through, right?"

"Guess we're going to find out," Ironhide retorted as he headed through the 'Bridge.


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Aly, Zoe, Moonraider, and Forest belong to me. **

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><p>It had taken Aly five minutes to get over her spell of dizziness whenever they got through the GroundBridge. She felt like she had just got off of a roller coaster with many, many loops, and was partially amazed that she was just dizzy instead of sick. Going through the GroundBridge was definitely something that would take some time to get used to. The thought of having to go through it several times just so she wouldn't be dizzy made Aly hope that she wouldn't have to use the GroundBridge very often.<p>

"Can Aly stay here tonight?" Bumblebee asked as he sat down on one of the medical berths so Ratchet could fix the tear in his door wing, making sure that his human friend was still secure on his shoulder in the process.

"I believe it may be best for her to return to her family tonight, Bumblebee. We do not want them to worry," Optimus replied.

"Oh it's okay, I can just call my parents and tell them that I'm staying with a friend."

Aly knew Bumblebee well enough to know that he wasn't wanting her to be out of his sight for a little while. He took his job as her guardian seriously, and it wouldn't surprise her at all if he became overprotective after everything that happened. Part of her didn't mind though, since it meant that she could keep an eye on him. She wouldn't have to worry about Sector Seven showing up and capturing him.

"Are you sure they will not mind?"

"Nah, they'll just think I'm talking about staying at Zoe's and will be fine with it. By the way, what happened to her?"

"She's fine and back at her house," Sideswipe said as he walked back inside of the base, followed by a green mech that none of the others had seen before. "I couldn't find the 'Con femme, but I found this guy."

Ironhide glanced over at the mech, "And you would be?"

"Autobot Forest, reporting for duty. I arrived on this planet several of its days ago."

"I didn't detect any incoming signals," Ratchet mused looking up from where he was working on repairing Bumblebee.

"Sorry about that." A sheepish grin formed on Forest's face. "I've gotten in a habit of hiding my signal when I land on new planets. Ran into quite a few 'Cons one time and I've been avoiding a repeat ever since."

In reality Forest had another reason for hiding his signal, but he wasn't going to admit it yet. He always tried to search for Moonraider before trying to find any other Autobots. Fortunately this time had been a success in that regard. Though what he was going to do about her remained a mystery. The Autobots were trying to find her to recapture her. Forest had managed to get the basics of what happened from Sideswipe without raising any suspicions. Betrayed the Decepticons, tried to get some humans to capture Optimus Prime and Megatron, and the entire thing had resulted in Prime's sparkmate and their human ally getting captured by the Decepticons. It was almost like Moonraider had a death wish.

"Welcome to Earth, Forest," Optimus greeted.

* * *

><p>An hour later Aly was sitting on a shelf in Bumblebee's room while he searched for something to make it more comfortable for her to sleep on. She had never actually stayed in the Autobot base overnight before, so there wasn't actually anywhere suitable for a human to sleep. She would have to make sure that she brought over some pillows and blankets for herself in case she stayed again. Zoe had said that she would bring over some clothes for her to change into before they went to school, and Bumblebee promised to take her through a drive-thru to get breakfast.<p>

"Ha! Found it!" Bumblebee exclaimed as he walked back over to her, carrying what looked like a metal blanket.

"What's that?"

"A thermal blanket."

"You guys need blankets?"

"Well, no, not really. They're mainly just used for comfort. Though sometimes when you have a virus, your heating systems get messed up and you need one. That's probably why we brought one with us, just in case someone was sick and needed it. But you can use it for tonight."

"Is that actually going to be comfortable? No offense, but it looks like it's made of metal," Aly eyed the blanket skeptically.

"It is, but it isn't. Actually it's kind of hard to explain. We don't really have fabrics and that kind of stuff on Cybertron, or if we did they were long gone by the time I came online. Anyway, it's not as bad as you think it'd be."

Aly reached out and touched the edges of it. Sure enough it didn't feel like any Earth fabrics, and the closest she could compare it to would have been satin, but it certainly wouldn't be uncomfortable to sleep on for one night. She let Bumblebee place it down for her and curled up to get comfortable as he went over to lay down on his berth.

"You okay?" she asked when she heard him let out a wince of pain.

"Yeah, my door wing is still a little sore. It'll be better after some recharge though. Are you okay?"

"Of course. I didn't get hurt or anything. Well I might have a few bruises, since Starscream wasn't exactly gentle when he tossed me into the cell that Elita and I were in to start with, but other than that I'm fine."

"Your fine physically. What about anything else?"

"Still fine. Starscream just talked, well insulted me and that's about it."

Bumblebee looked like he didn't believe her.

"So you mean to tell me that you were captured by Decepticons and that doesn't bother you at all? Aly, even the times when I wasn't interrogated or anything by the 'Cons when I was captured bothered me."

"Okay, so I'm a little freaked. And I feel bad, because most of this probably could have been avoided if I had listened to you and left."

"Yeah, it probably could have. I appreciate that you wanted to help me Aly, but it's my job to protect you – not the other way around."

"Well, no offense, but that is a crappy system. You get to get me out of dangerous situations, but I'm not allowed to help you? That sucks!"

"I'm your guardian, that's how it works."

"And I'm your sister, I'm supposed to be able to help you when you're in trouble. Just because we're not related biologically doesn't make things different."

"There's a difference between helping and getting in over your head."

"I know that. I just want to be able to help..."

Now that was a feeling that Bumblebee could relate to all too well. He had practically drove Elita insane when he had started trying to get her and Optimus to let him begin training. She had been hoping to keep him out of the war for as long as possible, actually both of them had been hoping that. Optimus would constantly remind him that he didn't have to get involved in the war. But Bumblebee hadn't wanted to stay out of it, and eventually he had got his wish.

The situation with Aly was different though. Earth technically wasn't fighting in Cybertron's war. In fact only Aly and Zoe knew about the war, Sector Seven just saw them as machines to dissect. There was no reason for any humans to start fighting in it, and Bumblebee knew that Optimus would never allow it. Aly did not have weapons and she was so much smaller than they were, and her getting involved in keeping Sector Seven from getting to them could have consequences of its own.

"I know you do, but your helping by not risking getting yourself into trouble."

"I don't see... fine."

Aly didn't want to get into an argument with Bumblebee. Especially when she knew that he had a point. But that didn't change her feelings on the matter. She wanted to help, so she would find a way to. Aly wasn't sure how she would find a way, but she would. And for now, she could just keep her thoughts on the matter to herself. In this situation, the Autobots weren't going to be much help in finding a way for her to help them.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. Moonraider and Forest belong to me. **

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><p>Forest waited until he was certain that the other Autobots would be in recharge, before sneaking out of the base. He needed to see Moonraider again and he needed to get her some more energon. The green mech felt a little bad about taking some of the energon from the storage room, but frankly Moonraider needed it a lot more than they did. Plus it was only two cubes – he could cut back on any rations he had to make it up. Repairing her visor would take some time though, but he would get it fixed for her sometime. Granted she actually stayed like she had said that she would.<p>

That was the thing with Moonraider it seemed. She had a habit of leaving. Forest knew that he couldn't blame her for that, she was a spy, if she got caught then she could be killed. And if any Decepticons caught her with him, then both of them could be killed. It was an unfortunate cycle that they had been forced to live in. They had only been able to see each other on rare occasions, and most of those times had been during battles. All in all, they had never had the chance to have much of a relationship. It didn't stop them from having feelings for each other though. They had spent too much time together when she had first showed up at his base, intending on finding out all the information she could, but he hadn't know that at the time.

As far as he had been concerned, she was just some lost youngling who was going to be staying with them until they found somewhere to send her. He had been assigned to be her guide around the base since the two of them were somewhat close in age. That had caused some of his friends to tease him, they kept telling him that he would end up wanting Moonraider to stay with them. They had been right. He had had a crush on her from the moment he met her, which may have boiled down to him thinking that she was pretty, but after talking to her and getting to know her, his feelings towards her grew.

And then he had found out that she was a Decepticon spy. That revelation had hurt, there was no way that Forest could deny that. How could it not have hurt? He trusted her – he was falling in love with her – to know that she had been spying on his base, trying to get intel for the Decepticons that could potentially kill them was shocking. Yet, he still hadn't been able to turn her in for being a spy. He had hated the thought of her being locked up for a long time, or potentially being killed for being a Decepticon spy. He still hated the thought in fact. So he had helped her escape, holding out on the hope that the war would be over soon and he would be able to find her again.

It unfortunately hadn't taken too long for the commanders at his base to find out that Moonraider was a spy, but as far as he knew they had never realized that he had been the one who had let her escape. Their base never was attacked though and Forest was certain that he was the only one who thought about that the most. He had shown Moonraider all of the base. She knew the weak points, she could have told her commanding officers and their base would have been an easy hit, and yet they never were attacked. That one little fact had been enough for Forest to realize that she did have some good in her. It was just unfortunate that good seemed to only come out around him.

He shook his thoughts away from that as he approached the cave where he had left her. It was time to focus on the present now, not the past. The only thing from the past that would have to be discussed was her recent actions. He knew that it would probably result in a fight, but he needed to know why she had done it.

"Moony, you awake?"

"It's hard not to be when you know that there's a chance that someone will come kill you while you're recharging and you have no weapons to defend yourself with." Her violet optics locked onto him.

"Well you can't be surprised about that. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I'm sick of fighting in a war that is nothing but a sibling rivalry gone mad!"

"So you were going to get yourself killed?"

"I acknowledged that it was a risk, but I hadn't expected that anyone would have caught on so soon."

"So when I got here, I was just supposed to find out that you were dead? That I had wasted my time searching for you, because you decided to do something stupid that got yourself killed?"

Moonraider's optics narrowed, "For all I knew you were dead. I didn't need to factor you into anything!"

"You could have at least considered the possibility that I was alive and wanted to see you again."

"Well I didn't," she huffed and turned her head away.

Forest frowned. This really wasn't going well. Making Moonraider mad at him, certainly wouldn't make things better between them.

"Look, I don't want us to fight. I've really missed you, and I just don't like knowing that you could have gotten yourself killed. I brought you some energon," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Won't the Autobots be suspicious when they're missing energon?"

"It's not all that much," he admitted, handing the energon to her. "But it should be enough to last you a couple of days and then I can just split some of my rations with you."

Moonraider looked away from him, "You're an idiot. After everything I've done, all of the trouble I've caused, you sill insist on trying to help me. When will it get through your head? You can't help me! I'm not good!" Her voice lowered to almost a whisper. "And you deserve better than me."

"I think you're wrong," Forest crossed his arms. "You've shown me in the past that you can be good and I'm not going to give up on you. You might not want me to help you, but I'm going to. And nothing you say is going to change that."

"Were you expecting for us to pick up where we left off?"

The question caught him slightly off guard.

"I would want to, yeah. But I wasn't expecting it. I know it's been a long time, so we can't just pick things up and move forward. I don't want us to have to start all over though, Moony."

She remained silent and didn't say anything in return. Forest resisted the urge to sigh, and walked over to sit beside of her. He had the slight feeling that she was hoping that he would leave, but he wasn't going to do that. He would stay there as long as it took for her to give him some sign that they wouldn't have to start from scratch.

"We may as well start over," she finally said. "You don't really know me anyway."

"I know enough. And you can always fill me in on what I don't know. Here's something easy, I grew up in Iacon, what about you?"

"Crystal City, until it was destroyed. After that I was moved around a lot by the Decepticons."

"Wait, the 'Cons found you there?"

"Yes. The city was destroyed, my creators were killed, and Nightbird found me and took me away from there."

"The Autobots had found survivors there. Slag, if they had been sooner, they could have found you instead of the 'Cons."

"What a shame they hadn't been sooner. It wouldn't have made a difference, I would have grown tired of the war regardless."

Forest felt like telling her that the Autobots would have treated her better – they still probably would treat her better than the Decepticons. But then, truthfully he didn't know much about her life with the Decepticons. One day he would ask her about it, but at the moment, that didn't seem like the best thing to bring up. She was still worried about them finding her and killing her, not that he could really blame her.

"You really should get some recharge. You need it, so you can heal properly."

"I already told you, I can't."

"Sure, you can," he replied, getting an idea. "After all, you're not alone at the moment."

Before Moonraider could say anything in protest, Forest reached over, picked her up, and plopped her down on his lap. She would hate it, he was sure about that. Her aversion to closeness had grown a lot ever since he had helped her escape. It was pretty easy for him to put it on the Decepticons trying to keep their spies focused on their missions, with no distractions.

"What are you doing!" she snapped.

"You need recharge," he reminded. "Now you don't have to recharge on the ground, and I can't leave without waking you up. That way you don't have to worry about defending yourself with no weapons."

"Or you could just reactivate my weapons and leave."

"Can't. I don't know how to reactivate them. So unless you want to come back to base with me..."

"Forget it," she huffed. "I'll permit this, but this is as close to the past as you're going to get."

Forest smiled, feeling satisfied. This was a definite improvement. She may not have said anything, but this could be an indication that she was possibly going to stop pushing him away. He would have to be careful about how he handled things from now on though. Forest didn't want to push Moonraider any, but he hadn't been lying before when he told her that he would be patient. When it came to Moonraider, he would give her as much time as she needed.


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters that exist in the various universes of it. I do own my OCs though. **

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><p>Despite the long period of time Starscream had spent as Megatron's Second in Command, and the even longer period of time that he had spent as his protégé, he never was prepared to face his leader when he was in a foul mood. Of course considering the fact that many of the confrontations had ended with him on his way to a medical bay, that probably was to be expected. He would have to be crazy to actually <em>want <em>to face Megatron, especially after he had contributed to a loss. It wouldn't matter that he had to give up the Autobot scout and the human girl because he had been outnumbered. Megatron would take one look at him, see that no damage had been accumulated, and then call him a coward and punish him for his mistake.

It was a cycle that was repeated all too often for Starscream's liking.

Granted there was little he could do to stop it. Not that he hadn't tried though; it was just that his attempts at overthrowing Megatron had led him to death's door too many times. It had gotten to the point where Thundercracker had tried to step in to stop Megatron from killing him. The result of that hadn't been pretty, and Starscream had stopped his attempts at overthrowing his leader for the sake of his brothers. No one could ever claim that he was completely sparkless. Even if he didn't always show it, he loved his brothers and oh did he miss them. If Starscream had any luck the two of them would make it to Earth soon and he would still be in one piece when they arrived.

Trying to hide his fear the best he could, Starscream made his way into the command center where Megatron was waiting. The moment the warlord's optics locked onto the Seeker, his expression became livid. Megatron took a step closer to him and Starscream started to panic.

"Tell me Starscream," Megatron's voice was deceptively calm, "how is it that you couldn't hold onto one measly human?"

Starscream hesitated before saying, "I was outnumbered. I was going to lose her either way, and it would have been pointless to keep a human around anyway. Humans are so fragile, she would have died before any use would have come from her."

"She was our last source of leverage against the Autobots you fool! And not only did you have her, you had the youngling in your grasp too!"

"The Autobots would have killed me if I didn't give them back!"

"You are a coward, Starscream," Megatron growled. "You didn't even try!"

A feeling of annoyance surged through Starscream. Would Megatron have honestly rather have lost his Second in Command and Air Commander, just so he could keep a pair of brats to have leverage over the Autobots? Ever since he had joined the Decepticon ranks he had been trained to be Megatron's successor. Apparently that position was worth little in Megatron's optics. Starscream had started to suspect a long time ago that the warlord seemed to think that successor was just another word for scapegoat. It wasn't like he could help it that Megatron's plans had often failed. It wasn't his fault that Megatron had lost to Prime.

"If you couldn't defeat Prime, how was I supposed to?" he sneered. "I'm not the only one who lost a hostage!"

Megatron lunged forward and grabbed a hold of Starscream's wings, claws digging deep into the sensitive appendages. The silver Seeker let out a cry of pain and struggled to get away, only succeeding in making his current predicament worse. To flyers, wings were an integral part of their frames. Sure there were some mechs and femmes that had flight abilities with no wings, but those with wings had no other way to fly without them. A flyers instinct was to fly. In fact, claustrophobia made it impossible for them to remain inside closed structures for long periods of time. To have the ability to fly taken away, caused many mechs and femmes to succumb to insanity. As such, like many flyers, Starscream was protective over his wings and did his best to prevent any injuries from befalling them.

"I tire of your insolence and cowardice, Starscream. No longer will I tolerate such traits from my Second in Command." Megatron started to tear off the Seeker's wings, causing Starscream to cry out in agony. "Perhaps this will serve as a reminder to you!"

"N-no, master please!" Starscream begged.

The irony of the situation was not lost on Starscream as he suffered through the agony. He had caused damage to the door wings of Moonraider and the Autobot scout earlier, and now his own wings were being torn from his body.

"You'll get these back, once I believe you've learned your lesson."

Starscream crumpled to the ground as his wings were ripped free from his body. Delivering one hard kick to Starscream's frame, sending him sprawling across the floor, Megatron strode out of the room, taking Starscream's wings with him.

* * *

><p>Megatron knew that taking away Starscream's wings, and by extension his ability to fly, was a risky punishment. The Seeker would remember it well, but there was the chance that he would be driven to madness depending on how long the punishment lasted. As much as an annoyance as the mech could be, Starscream did have his useful moments. Crippling him to the point where he would be useless to the Decepticon cause would be a waste.<p>

Sometimes Megatron really wondered what he had been thinking when he had decided to make Starscream into his successor. Mentorships were an ancient Cybertronian tradition, and all of Cybertron's leaders had found themselves protégés to train. At the time the war had still been young and he had been certain that he was going to win it soon. While finding himself a protégé had not been a primary concern, it had been something that he had been considering. Perhaps he had saw something similar to himself in Starscream. Or perhaps he hadn't been thinking straight at the time.

The Seeker had still been a youngling at the time. Young enough to potentially start shaping him into a decent leader, but old enough to where he wouldn't be a burden and could fight in the war. Of course he had been a package deal, that had been an unfortunate condition. True, Starscream's siblings had been excellent additions to the Decepticon ranks, but that had caused some problems for him in the past. The eldest of the group, Thundercracker, had often interfered when it came to teaching Starscream. The blue Seeker could be too protective of his younger brothers and Megatron had often had to find ways to separate Starscream from his trine.

Shaking away those thoughts, Megatron walked into Knockout's medical bay.

"Knockout!"

The red mech jumped from where he had been working on repairing Breakdown.

"Lord Megatron," the medic quickly turned and bowed. "How may I be of service?"

Megatron tossed Starscream's wings at Knockout, who scrambled to catch them. Looking at the appendages in confusion, he exchanged a look with Breakdown before questioningly turning his focus back to Megatron.

"Starscream is in need of repairs," the warlord answered simply. "Those are not to be reattached to his frame for eight solar cycles."

"Of course, my liege. As soon as I finish Breakdown's repairs, we will go attend to Starscream."

"Good, and see to it that he does not know where his wings are located nor when he will be getting them back."

The medic and his assistant both nodded in understanding, with a slight look of dread in their optics. No doubt dealing with Starscream would be a difficult task. Megatron turned and left them, right as he received a message from Soundwave, telling him that the Communication's Officer had returned from his mission.

"Tell me Soundwave, what is the condition of our little traitor?" Megatron questioned as he entered the communication bay.

"Missing. Security footage revealed that the Autobots took her into their custody."

"The soft-sparked fools probably repaired her," the tyrant scoffed.

Soundwave nodded in agreement, "Laserbeak picked up Autobot transmissions claiming that she escaped."

"Contact Shockwave, it appears we will require the assistance of his assassin. Nightbird should be able to take care of her former student. What did you learn from the human facility?"

"The human group known as Sector Seven holds two Cybertronian in their custody. Current location is unknown. They are reverse engineering them to enhance their technology and weaponry. Schematics for armor were found. It is possible that these weapons could cause harm to a Cybertronian."

"They've been expecting more of our kind to land on this planet?"

"This group has and they do not seem to fear us. Security footage also indicated that the traitor had discovered that they are wanting more Cybertronians to experiment on."

"Search through Moonraider's belongings and see if she had discovered anything else about these humans and the Cybertronians they have captured. If these humans do not fear us, then perhaps it is time to show this planet exactly what we are capable of."


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it. The only characters I own are my OCs. **

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><p><em><strong>Five Days Later<strong>_

Optimus knew that they technically should have had this meeting a lot sooner. With the threat of Sector Seven, the loss of a Decepticon prisoner, and the addition of a new human ally and a new Autobot team member, there was much to discuss. Of course he had wanted time to mull over the recent events before discussing them with Ratchet, Ironhide, and Jazz, and Jazz had wanted to try to see if he could find any information at all about their escaped prisoner. He had agreed with Jazz's thoughts that someone, possibly Ultra Magnus or Prowl, would have some sort of backup to their databases where Moonraider would be mentioned. Elita was present at the meeting as well, though Optimus had already discussed all of his thoughts with her.

They were going to have to finish discussing their current situation involving the humans and Sector Seven first though, before that topic could even be brought up.

"Bumblebee and Sideswipe are at risk being on guardian duty," Ironhide stated. "Bumblebee especially since Sector Seven already knows what he looks like in alt-mode."

"We would be putting Aly and Zoe at risk if Bumblebee and Sideswipe were removed from being their guardians," Ratchet pointed out.

"The humans are putting _us _at risk! Their government is already after us and the Decepticons have proven that they're willing to use them as bait against us. The fact that one acts terrified to be around us and the other has already proven that she'll throw herself in danger certainly doesn't help things. They're as defenseless as a sparkling, and probably even more fragile than one! We'd be better off distancing ourselves from them."

"Chill 'Hide," Jazz shook his head. "The humans are fine. You heard what 'Bee said, Aly attempted to help him fight Starscream. Even then we don't need them fighting with us. They're just good to be around."

"You are correct in your statement about the humans being fragile and more defenseless, Ironhide. But Jazz is correct. Our human allies do not need to be fighting with us, but we need them as our liaisons. The day will come when we will have to reveal ourselves to the humans, and we will need the help of our human allies to convince them that we mean no harm and only wish to protect this planet," Optimus stepped in.

"Do you believe that the other humans will listen to them and believe what they say?" Ratchet asked. "They're not considered adults by their species's standards and they are still quite young."

"They'll need to be taught and trained," Elita spoke for the first time during the meeting. "They don't know much about our species and that information could be beneficial to them."

"Aly never seemed interested in learning about our culture in the past."

"Did you ever ask her if she was interested?" Elita glanced at Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide. The silence from all three was enough for her answer. "I'll ask the girls if they want to know and I'll teach them. I need something to do since I won't be fighting, and I'm sure that at least one of them would be interested."

"Then that is settled." Optimus nodded. "Jazz were you able to learn anything about our former prisoner?"

"Not a lot. From what I've heard back from Prowl on her record, she's a Decepticon spy. She's infiltrated several bases, some were attacked after she left, some weren't."

"Do we know why some were left alone?" Elita asked.

"Nothing definite. Though I did find it interesting of the few that weren't attacked, they all had one thing in common."

"What?"

"Forest was there. It could just be a coincidence, but there was a rumor in Forest's file about him being spotted with a Decepticon several times in the past."

Optimus frowned, "Was that rumor ever proven?"

"No, but it is a little suspicious considering that he keeps running off and he arrived shortly after we lost Moonraider."

"We have no proof that he is doing anything related to her. Unless there is concrete evidence that he is aiding an enemy, I do not want to accuse what could very well be an innocent mech. We do not need any animosity building on this team, especially not when we are facing new threats."

"I don't like this," Ironhide grumbled. "If he is helping her, we're letting him get away with it. We don't know where his loyalties lie with her in the picture or what she could be planning."

Optimus couldn't help but think that Ironhide was being more difficult than usual to reason with. His friend had always been easy to anger and tended to be a little less trusting of others, but it seemed to be worse lately.

_(I'm betting that he misses, Chromia.) _Elita mused through their bond. _(You know he and my sister are easier to get along with when they're together.)_

_(Then perhaps we should hope that she arrives on Earth soon.)_

_(I'm sure 'Mia is already on her way. She'll be missing Ironhide just as much as he misses her.)_

"Ratchet, you repaired Moonraider. Would she be in any condition to launch any attacks on any Autobots?"

The medic thought for a moment, "She could try, but I'm doubtful any would be successful. I only repaired her life threatening injuries, the rest were mainly cosmetic. One of her door wings was bent, which would make transforming painful, though Forest would be able to straighten that out himself – if he is helping her. Her weapons were deactivated as a safety precaution and they should still be that way, so any attacks would have to be one-on-one." He thought back to her escape. "She's quite agile, so I imagine that she could be a tricky opponent in a fight depending on who she would be fighting."

"So she has a chance at attacking a single opponent that would be on a similar or lesser skill level as her own," Elita summarized. "Though the question is whether she would want to. The Decepticons will no doubt want her dead and she knows that if she attacks any Autobots, we'll find out about it and find her. If she wants to avoid capture and death, she would want to remain hidden."

"It would be impossible for her to remain hidden though. Eventually she'll have to find a source of energon in order to stay online," Ratchet reminded.

"Unless someone is helping her and bringing it to her," Jazz concluded. "Which brings us back to the possibility of Forest helping her. Though really I don't see what he would get out of it."

"If he is helping her, perhaps Moonraider convinced him in the past that the two of them were friends and he cares about her," Elita suggested. "Or perhaps the feeling is mutual. I'm doubtful that we'll know for sure unless Forest tells us or we find evidence to question him."

"We will keep a close watch on things," Optimus decided. "If there is evidence that Forest could be potentially aiding an enemy or he is caught, he will be dealt with. Until then, he is to be left alone. It is imperative that we stand together right now. Forest could prove to be a useful asset to our team, and I do not wish for him to believe that he is unwelcome here."

_(You don't seem too concerned that we could potentially have a traitor amongst us.)_

_(I could say the same to you.)_

_(The only reason I'm not concerned is because I think that you're thinking of another scenario. What is it Optimus?)_

_(If Forest does care about Moonraider, I do not believe that he would want her to remain alone as a rouge.)  
>(Do you think he'll go rouge as well?)<em>

_(It is a possibility, but I do not think that is what he is going to do. I believe that eventually he will try to bring Moonraider back here.)_

_(Moonraider would have to truly care for him as well, for him to be able to convince her to come here. Either that or she'll have to be desperate enough. I could see that eventually happening though. She has to know that she won't be able to spend the rest of her life hiding from all Cybertronians, except for potentially Forest.)_

_(Which is why I believe that one day we will find her here again. The only question is when.)_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **And this brings us to the end of When We Stand Together. I plan on writing a sequel to this story sometime in the near future. If you are interested in seeing what happens with Forest, Moonraider, and the rest, add me to your alerts so you'll know when the story is up. I want to thank everyone who has followed this story. I hope that you all have enjoyed it! This story has been in the works for a long time now it feels like, the original version that I took down before I did this rewrite was my first Transformers fanfiction. So this story has provided me with a bit of a learning experience in writing and developing characters. I hope to improve even more with that in the sequel.


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